


Reclaiming the Throne

by GuiltyKingOumaShu



Series: Reclaiming [1]
Category: Guilty Crown
Genre: Canon Continuation, F/M, Romance, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-21
Updated: 2015-05-21
Packaged: 2018-03-31 13:55:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 89,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3980593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuiltyKingOumaShu/pseuds/GuiltyKingOumaShu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five years after the fall of GHQ, Shu finds himself trying to live with the shards that happen to remain of his broken life. Honoring his lost lover's last wish and sacrifice, he chose to live on in a world he can only find little solace in. But despite the burden of blindness and his broken heart, he manages to keep going, not least because of his friends and family who keep supporting him and give him strength in his times of need. However, after he thought he made peace with the sad events of the past, his world starts to fall into chaos yet again as visions of the deceased start to come to not only him, but his friends as well. As everyone starts trying to find explanations to these unnatural events, it is no one else but Yuu, the envoy of Da'ath who dares to show his face in front of the fallen king again. Realizing that this war of his has not yet ended, Shu decides that it is time to rise yet again to reclaim what he has lost. A king may not rule forever, but his rule would only end with death. So until the day he would draw his last breath, he would continue to bear the burden of his guilty crown. (First installment of the Reclaiming series)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Of heroes and villains

**Author's Note:**

> Reposted from fanfiction.net: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8897975/1/Reclaiming-the-Throne  
> Feel free to read wherever it is more convenient for you.
> 
> This will be a part of a series which will consist of four parts. This one is the first. The chapter quality of the first few chapters might be not that good, but it will improve the further you get.

* * *

**Reclaiming the Throne**

**1\. Of heroes and villains**

It was getting cold in Tokyo. Winter was coming and with it the days started to grow shorter, engulfing the city in darkness even though it couldn't have been any later than 6 pm. Not that Shu could tell with his broken vision. Brown eyes being completely intact, yet having ceased to grant their owner the blessing of sight so long ago. The young man wondered how many years it had already been since his battle had ended. Four? Five? It couldn't have been more than that, not that it really mattered anymore. He had soon started to stop thinking about the past too much. Of the good times he once had and of the things that were now lost forever.

The harsh wind of December brought him back to reality and he quickly tried to hide his face deeper into his long, red scarf, seeking some warmth from the thick piece of cloth. His eyes may have failed him with providing pictures of his surroundings, but the rest of his body sure as hell never stopped to inform him of the biting cold which embraced him.

Next to him, he could hear the familiar sound of a little robot which followed him everywhere. It was one of Funell's "kids" Tsugumi had created in her free time. At first, she had made them very little so they could appear like Funell really had kids, but she soon made them bigger and gave one of them to Shu as well as all her other new friends. It had been her Christmas present to everyone in the first year after the battle. And a nice one at that, since Shu really appreciated the help of that little device.

His one had been especially programmed for him so it could help him in his everyday life by becoming a substitute for a guide dog. The small robot would use its GPS to navigate its owner through the city and was completely operated by voice. And only Shu's voice at that, so no one could steal the little one. You would be surprised by how many people actually would shamelessly try to snatch such a handy gadget from a blind man. At least Shu was. Escaping the apocalypse apparently didn't change people. Some of them were still the same scumbags they had always been.

Well, not that Shu had expected any big changes in behaviour.

The robot suddenly stopped and made a sound so that the brunette man could know they had reached their destination.

"Oh, are we there already? Thanks a lot, Funezo." He smiled at the small robot, which in return gave an approving sound before vanishing through the door of the supermarket they were standing in front of. The blind man soon entered as well, following the sound the little robot made.

A satisfied sigh escaped his lips as the doors closed behind him and he could feel the warmth of the store replacing the outside cold.

"Oh, it's you, Shu!" he was greeted by the happy voice of the female shop clerk, who couldn't be much older than he was. She had beautiful, long, brown hair and matching eyes to boot. He knew that since she told him that they shared the same hair and eye colour, though he actually had no idea how long her hair really was. He caught himself sometimes thinking that it was actually Hare who was talking to him instead of the clerk, especially in the early years, though he had never mentioned that to her. He often wondered why he did so in the first place and came to the conclusion that it was probably because Hare and that girl where very much alike in terms of personality. Maybe his mind liked the idea of imagining what would have become of Hare if she had never died. Or it was just the fact that he missed her so bad.

"Good evening! I have already prepared your usual bag of groceries. Want me to put anything else in there for you?" She lifted a small bag of groceries from behind the counter and put them on it so Shu could take them.

"No thanks, Harune, the usual stuff will do." He replied smiling while taking out his wallet to pay. "Thanks a lot, really. It would be such a pain to go and find the stuff every time."

"Don't mention it. After all, my dad and I owe a lot to you for the things you did 5 years ago."

Ah, so it really had been 5 years…time sure flies.

"I didn't do that much. And it's not like I didn't have a personal interest to take part in the fight."

' _Though it didn't matter, since I had failed to rescue Inori anyway…'_ he thought bitterly, but dismissed it quickly.

"That doesn't change the fact that you saved my dad's life. He was already at the last stage of the apocalypse virus and I was sitting next to his bed, crying. I was so afraid he would die but then the cancer simply vanished! It was like a miracle! When I saw you in the news a week later, I finally understood that it was thanks to you that I didn't lose my father. I will never forget that. You are a hero!" She told him excitedly and even bowed in respect after she was done. Shu didn't know what to do so he just smiled and waved it off.

"Come on, you are embarrassing me. I am not that great, really. Just your average blind guy, buying some instant-food, tea-bags, some bottled drinks, and…" he seemed to have forgotten what else he just purchased, but the girl in front of him simply rose her finger and answered in an all-knowing manner:

"3 small packages of batteries and a whooole lot of toilet paper." She grinned at the last part, Shu could tell by the way she sounded.

"Thanks a BUNCH for reminding me, jeez…" he scratched the back of his head and tried to hide his embarrassment.

She just giggled at his reaction. "What are you so embarrassed for? The stuff runs out fast, no big deal."

"It's more the fact that you know my weekly purchases better than I do…I actually think you do know them by heart…maybe I should start using a different store for a change…"

The girl in front of him pouted. "What? Even though I gather all the stuff you need beforehand and hand them to you when you visit this shop? You are so mean. Don't you know I do that just for you?"

The man just laughed. "Relax, I was kidding! Why would I ever want to go to a different store when I know that there is someone like you around to look out for me? I am truly grateful for that. Plus, I would kind of miss to hear your voice every time I come in here. You don't get greeted by such a friendly voice just anywhere."

Though he was just being honest, he had no idea that his words actually made her blush pretty bad. That's why he was confused when she didn't reply immediately.

"Is something wrong?"

"N-no, e-e-everything is f-fine."

Good for Shu, the awkward moment was interrupted by Harune's father stepping out from behind the store to see who her daughter was talking to so excitedly. "Ooooh, if it isn't Shu! Good to see you, my boy! How's it goin'?"

The man was in his late 40s but still had a grip like he could go outside and pull out some trees off the ground. At least that's what Shu thought every time he got a bear hug from that guy. He didn't mind, though. He seemed like a good person who is happy to be alive. He sometimes envied this man for being in such high spirits all the time, but was happy for him nonetheless.

"Hello there, Mr. Kanzaki."

"Aww, come on, son. I told ya you could call me Kaito." He told him while laughing and patting him on the back.

"Sorry about that."

"No worries, kiddo. Did you come to pick up one of Harune's packages for you? Man, I am so jealous. She wouldn't even make her old man a bento, but here she is, making sure you get your stuff every time you come by. She always seems so happy when she does, too." Mr. Kanzaki sighed with folded arms.

"Daaaaad!" his daughter cried out in embarrassment, resulting in both men to laugh.

"I just told her how grateful I am for all her support as well. I would like to thank both of you for your continuous efforts in looking out for me. You are too kind." Shu said while bowing in respect.

"Don't say that, Shu. It is no big deal to us, really." Harune told him with a smile.

"It's like Harune said. In fact, you are pretty much like a son to me, so come by whenever you like." Her father added with a huge grin.

Shu nodded. "I will. Well, I guess I will be going now."

"Just a moment, Shu. Let me put some extra meat in your bag. You are looking kind of skinny to me, so you better make good use of the extra proteins to grow some muscles, ya hear me?" The older man went off to grab some meat from the store and put it into Shu's bag before he could protest. "There you go."

"You really didn't have to…" Shu's attempt at declining his offer was interrupted by Harune.

"Don't worry about it. Just accept it." She told him, still smiling.

"But…"

"No buts, kiddo. Just take the stuff and make sure you make it home safely."

The blind man didn't know what else to say, so he gave up and with a smile he bowed in gratitude and waved them both good-bye.

"I will be off then."

"Take care!"

And with that he finally left the store, only to be embraced by the coldness of winter again.

"Let's go home, Funezo."

The small robot next to him gave off some mechanical noises as if to voice his agreement and lead the way. Shu followed suit.

They didn't come far, though, before someone heavily barged against Shu's shoulder. Shu could tell it hadn't been by accident at all, so he got his guard up.

"Well, well, well, look at that. If it isn't the famous Ouma Shu. Still buying his stuff in that little store, I see. Just like they told us he would." He could hear a man say. Shu also heard another one snicker at that comment, so he could tell the man wasn't alone.

He wasn't scared in the least, though. In an annoyed voice he asked them: "What do you want…?"

"He wants to know what we want…can you believe that?" The stranger seemed to be talking to his companion. As far as Shu could tell, there were only these two men blocking his path.

"Did he seriously forget who we are?" Now the second one was talking mockingly, Shu was really starting to get very annoyed with these guys.

"Maybe it would help if we told him our names? That should fix his memory, right? _President_ Ouma?" The last bit was obviously directed back at him, while emphasizing the word 'President' in an disgusted manner. It was then when Shu understood who these guys where.

His eyes widened for a second in realization, but reverted back into his serious look almost immediately. "You guys are from Tennouzu High…"

Both of the former students laughed approvingly. "That's right, guess you didn't forget after all."

Shu grimaced. "How could I ever…you tried to kill me. I bear a constant reminder to that day with me…" He looked down at his replacement arm.

"Tch…look at that high-tech stuff he got for his 'heroic deeds'…they would never give something this fancy to normal people like us." One of them said while sounding pretty annoyed. Shu just narrowed his eyes on him. It was true. This arm was special. The technology behind it was brand new and still experimental. Only few people in the world got to actually use it, most of them being people with much influence or money. It would still be a while before stuff like that could get into mass production for everyone to use. Still, the way this guy talked just pissed him off.

"So what of it? Are you saying I don't deserve it? You've got quite some nerve to tell me that right into my face when it was because of you that I lost my arm in the first place!"

"Oh, cry me a river. You lost an arm…know what I lost? My best buddies when we were playing foot soldiers for your little 'exodus mission'" The strangers now sounded angry.

"That's unfortunate and you got my utmost sympathy for that, but you honestly couldn't expect me to get ALL of you out of loop 7 without any casualties."

That only made them angrier. The first of them seized Shu by his collar and spat: "Easy for you to say, when all your buddies where in your little S-rank council!"

Shu easily broke loose with a swift move of his Arm and put some steps worth of distance between them.

"For your information, I had one of my friends put into F-rank, so don't you go around accusing me of unfairness. I made the same rules for everyone and I bet you didn't even mind at all at first since you probably were rank B or higher who was always being treated better than the rest of the students. You are just a hypocrite who chooses the side you think is more lucrative, like you did when you betrayed me in the end." He told him all that with a look cold as ice.

"You bastard…!" The guy wanted to take a step forward towards Shu, but his friend worriedly put an arm on his shoulder.

"Wait…what if he draws our voids out?"

"Don't worry, he can't do that anymore. He used to have to look at someone's eyes to do that, but now he is blind, so he's pretty much powerless." He grinned while saying that. "Isn't that right, OUMA SHU!?"For the first time in a long while Shu actually was happy that he didn't have to see what's in front of him, for he could pretty much imagine the maniacal expression of the guy before him…and who in his right mind would actually want to see something this stupid?

"Oh, so he really is just a blind cripple now…good!" The second one seemed to have found new resolve and took out a knife from his pocket while his friend readied a baseball bat. "Prepare yourself, _president_ , for we have come to finish what we have started 5 years ago!"

"Tch!" Shu angrily took a step back and got ready for the worst. Luckily, Funezo was also armed with the same weapons Funell was, so he quickly analyzed the situation and when he deemed it as a threat to Shu, he aimed at the first thug and shot a cable at him, which wrapped itself around his legs and caused the guy to lose his balance, making his face come in contact with the hard concrete which called itself the ground. When Funezo registered, that his prey was still resisting, he zapped him with some serious electricity, knocking him out for good.

"Kazuma!" the ex-student with the bat looked around to his fallen comrade and then eyed the robot with pure anger. "How dare you!" He proved to be unexpectedly fast, which resulted in him getting to Funezo before Shu could react, and smashed at the little robot with all his might. All the blind man heard was the hissing sound of broken mechanics and the electrical sound of sparks coming out of destroyed circuits.

"Serves you right, you little fucker!" the thug laughed while he stepped on the remains of Funezo before taking his focus back to Shu. "Now you have nothing left who can protect you. Time to die, void prince."

Shu, however, didn't even think about backing down. Rather than that, he put on a devilish glare while taking a small stick out of pockets of his coat. He pressed a button and the small stick grew in size, revealing itself to be the blindman's stick Shu used whenever Funezo wasn't available.

"You will pay for that!" he threatened his enemy.

"Stop shitting me!" while yelling, the ex-student charged forward.

Shu on the other hand remained calm. His enemy was tall and came directly at him like a fool. He could hear every step and when he realized the man coming in hitting range, Shu simply sidestepped, making the thug miss and almost fall over because he put too much force into his strike.

"What's the matter? Slipped?"

"You little…!" He regained his stance and took his bat with both hand, planning to slam it into the brown haired man's head.

But, again, Shu was able to hear the move and ducked just in time, so that the attack almost grazed him, but left him unharmed nonetheless. While his attacker was still off-balance from his missed attempt of hitting him, Shu took the opportunity to uppercut him as he pinpointed the location of his head by the voices the enemy made in frustration.

"Argh…how the fuck is this even possible!" yelled the man. "You should be supposed to be blind!"

"I am."

"The how the hell are you dodging?!"

Shu sighed in an annoyed manner and shrugged. "You are so noisy…"

"I will fucking kill you!" the man lunged forward again.

"So you have said already…" mumbled Shu and waited patiently for the attack. When it came, He focused on where he thought his enemy would be and abruptly pointed his blind man's stick in that direction, so fast that his attacker had only time to mumble a confused "huh?" before he ran right into the tip of the stick. When they touched, Shu pressed a hidden button on it and the tip immediately shot out a painful looking spark, electro shocking his opponent. He did so for a couple of seconds before he let go of him and the poor guy fell to the ground because his numb muscles failed to comply.

"Damnit!...Are you for real? I just lost to a blind man!" Shu could hear him mutter while lying on the ground and desperately trying to get his aching body to get up and DO something. The brown haired man simply walked over to him and kneeled down, grinning proudly.

"As you can see, I don't even need voids to take people like you down."

"Don't look down on me, damnit!" The defeated man tried to smack him, but all his paralyzed body managed to do was some half-hearted and slow move with his hand, which didn't even reach it's target in the slightest, let alone would have hurt if it actually had.

"Shu! Is everything okay? Want me to call the cops?" Shu turned around to Harune's voice who seemed to have caught a glimpse of the trouble, he had just had, from inside the store. She stepped out and yelled in Shu's direction albeit keeping her distance to be sure.

Answering her with a smile, Shu just shook his head. "That won't be necessary, these gentlemen were about to leave anyway." He turned around again and looked down on the fallen man, replacing his smile with a cold look. "Right?"

The thug actually seemed like he was about to protest, yet was instantly silenced upon seeing the look in Shu's eyes. Instead he just mumbled a barely audible"Y-Yeah…"

Satisfied with his answer, Shu held out his right hand for the ex-student to grab. He seemed reluctant at first but took it anyway when he saw the coldness in Shu's eyes leave and being yet again replaced by a kind smile, albeit looking slightly fake.

When the blind man finally felt the still slightly shaking hand in his own, he pulled strong enough to heave the grown man up immediately. In fact, he pulled a bit too hard, almost resulting in the guy to bump into him and knocking both over. Shu never really got used to the mechanical strength in his fake arm, even after all these years, yet was still thankful for it as it proved to be quite handy at times.

The ex-student somehow managed to keep his balance, although still on wobbly legs which made him appear like a drunk to people who had no idea he had just been stunned by some nasty electro shocks. Before he could turn around and try to leave, though, Shu grabbed his collar, making it look like he was fixing it for him, while he was actually just making sure the guy was still looking at him.

"I am sure I don't need to tell you this, but the next time you guys are trying to pull such a stunt on me, you WILL be sorry, get it?"The man winced when Shu used just a bit too much force on readjusting the collar but nodded nonetheless and immediately turned around the moment he was released of Shu's grip.

"Come on, Kaz, wake up." Shu heard him walking over to his friend and pulling the groaning man up. "Let's get outta here…this guy's a freakin' monster…" He made sure they were left and when he couldn't hear them anymore, he walked over to the spot he could still make out some faint whirring noise and knelt down, trying to feel the damage they did to Funezo, sighing when he only felt unrecognizable shapes and many pieces of metal.

"Oh, Funezo…what have they done to you…?"

He noticed someone walking up to him and figured it was Harune, who wanted to check on him.

"Is it really okay to not call the police? Those guys seemed dangerous…"

"Don't worry about it…I made sure they won't come again." He tried to reassure her. That was the whole point of him acting all cold towards his attackers in the first place. It was not like he actually planned to hurt these guys too bad…he just wanted to scare them off so they would leave him alone in the future.

"I kinda saw that…that one guy couldn't even touch you…that was pretty impressing. It was the first time I got to see you fight!" she sounded amazed.

He couldn't help but give her a small laugh. "If that got you all amazed, you should have seen me 5 years ago. I still can't believe some of the stuff I did back then. It just felt so unreal."

"I would love to hear about that. Would you tell me when you got the time?"

Shu fell silent for a moment and went back to inspecting Funezo. He really wasn't too keen on remembering the past, but she really seemed like she was looking forward to it, so he agreed for her sake. "Yea…next time I will."

She cheered happily and Shu smiled at her antics. She then knelt besides him and helped him collecting all the parts of Funezo that got scattered around the street..

"How bad is it?" he decided to ask her after taking a nervous gulp.

"To be honest…pretty bad…I am sorry, Shu. That little robot of yours is totally smashed…" She gave him a pitiful look when she saw him looking down with sadness.

"As I thought…" They silently picked up the rest of Funezo and Harune was kind enough to put all of his remains in another bag so Shu could take them with him.

"Hey, Harune. Can I ask you a favor?"

"Of course!"

"Do you mind calling a taxi for me? I will have to visit a friend to look at Funezo. If he can be fixed at all, she is the only one who would be up to it."

"Right away!" And with that she went off to do the task. Shu on the other hand remembered that he had dropped his bag of groceries somewhere during the fight and had now to find it. What a pain.

While searching the ground with his stick, he couldn't help but wonder how different some people viewed him now. For some of them, like in Harune's case, he looked like a hero who had saved them, but there were also those who resented him, like most of the Tennouzu High students from earlier, or people who had lost their job due to the disbanding of GHQ and all the companies who had worked together with them, like Sephirah Genomics for example. There were also those who hated him for being too late, having lost dear family members to the virus only days or weeks before he had cleansed the world from it. It's not like he couldn't relate to them, though, since he had often wished he would have arrived sooner himself. If he had arrived earlier back then, he could have saved Inori…

Harune returned, breaking his line of thoughts. "The taxi will be here in a couple of minutes. You can wait inside the shop if you want, it's pretty cold out here." She also noticed his search for his lost bag of groceries and handed it to him. "There you go. The goods seem to be fine, too. Lucky you!"

"Thanks, Harune." He took the bag with his usual kind smile. "I will gladly accept your offer to wait inside your store, too. Anything to get away from the cold." He laughed. That's when she took his hand and dragged him through the door of the store.

"Then what are you waiting for? Come on in already!"

They spent ten minutes in her store, chatting about this and that, when the taxi finally arrived and Shu waved her good-bye for the second time of the day. The driver got out, put Shu's bags into the trunk and then opened the door for him to get in the car. The brown haired man then told him their destination and without further ado, the vehicle drove off into the night.

He couldn't help but sigh mentally, though.

_'Tsugumi certainly won't be happy about this…'_


	2. The King of Fools

 

**2\. The king of fools**

 

About an hour of taxi driving later, he found himself in front of a huge apartment complex. He had never actually seen the buildings for…obvious reasons, but he had heard people calling it "a big complex of new buildings with nice apartments". Apparently, there were quite a few people who had wanted to move in here. Not surprising, though, with most of loop 7 being destroyed, there were many people who had lost their homes and were in desperate need of a new one. Thus a lot of new buildings like these were speed-built in the blink of an eye.

Ayase and Tsugumi had managed to get one of the more expensive apartments around here. They told him the view outside their windows was fascinating, although they tried to not mention it all too often around Shu, knowing he would feel bad on missing out.

"Well, let's get this over with." It wasn't like he hated visiting them or anything. In fact, he actually enjoyed their company very much, especially since he often felt lonely back at home, with Haruka still working most of the time. It was rather the feeling he had about Tsugumi ripping his head off his shoulders after seeing what had become of Funezo which made him slightly reluctant on dropping by.

It couldn't be helped, though, as he really liked the little robot and would rather have him fixed to keep him at least some company back at home, than returning all on his own and getting lonely in the silent world of darkness that has become his reality in the apartment he and Haruka still lived in.

He stepped forward and found his way to the entrance of the building the two girls had moved into. Since he had visited quite a few times already, he knew where he would find the doorbell and pressed it. From the over 30 buttons he could possibly press, it had always been the fifth from the top, in the second column. He only had to wait a small while before Ayase's voice could be heard through the speaker.

"Yes?"

"Good evening, Ayase. Do you mind if I drop by at this hour?"

"Shu?" She seemed surprised. "Of course I don't mind! Please, come in!"

The blind man could hear the whirring noise of the door being unlocked and he quickly pushed it open. He had no problems locating the elevator and rode it to the 11th floor where he was already greeted by Ayase's voice, who had waited for him in front of the elevator.

"Welcome, Shu! It has been quite a while since you last visited. I thought you promised to come by more often?" she narrowed her eyes and grumpily added the last part which made Shu rather nervous.

"I know I did, but you two live quite some distance away from my home and it never is easy for me to come here, y'know…"

Ayase wouldn't have his excuses, so she dragged him down to her level und pinched his cheek. "Excuses! Always only excuses out of your month! You promised to come by so keep your promise! You probably were just too lazy to come all the way out here…have you even been doing your daily exercises?"

"Y-yes, ma'am!" It was true. He exercised a lot lately, though it was mainly because there was nothing else to do in his free time. It wasn't like he could simply sit down and watch TV or browse the internet, like he had used to in the past. Oh, how he missed doing that every now and then. He sure as hell missed playing video games, too.

Ayase seemed to give him a once-over and then gave off an approving nod. "Well, you seem to be telling the truth. You are looking pretty good, so keep it up." She grinned and patted him on the back.

"Thanks, always means a lot coming from you, Ayase."

"Just don't let it go to your head." She replied with a smirk and led the way. "Come on, let's go inside." The entrance to the apartment was right next to the elevator, so they didn't have to walk very far.

"Sorry for the intrusion." He politely said while entering the apartment after Ayase and removing his shoes, scarf and coat in the hallway, right next to the entrance. The girl kindly took the coat and the scarf from him and put the items in the closet.

"We just had dinner, but I could warm up something for you, if you want." She offered while pushing her wheelchair through the hallway and into the living room.

"Thank you, but I am not hungry at all."

"Are you sure or is it because you fear Tsugumi's cooking? If it is the latter, you don't have to worry since it was my turn today."

"Hey, I heard that!" came an angry voice from behind the couch. Tsugumi lay there and watched something on TV. When she looked up to see who had come over, she seemed quite happy with what she saw. "Oi, Shu! Long time no see! I just found some weird show called 'Code Geass', wanna check it out with me? Aya-nee is watching, too, but she's only in it for the endlaves, or knightmares as they call them, and going on and on about how she could beat every one of them in a real fight. It's so annoying!"

"Well, it's true! They are all just relying on their ridiculous 'special weapons'. Almost none of them have actual piloting skills!"

"It's a show for god's sake. Can't you just enjoy the story? Jeez…"

Shu just smiled as they both went on and on about the show they were watching prior to his visit. He enjoyed listening to these two because he admired how well they got along. It had been quite a while since he had last talked to Yahiro or Souta with both of them being now busy with their jobs. He had the feeling they were all slowly growing apart, but these two girls never would and that's why he was happy for them. He guessed that's what you would call "friends forever".

He then started to take part in their little discussion. "You know, I already watched Code Geass, wanna know how it ends?" he smirked.

Tsugumi looked up from behind the couch and hissed, which would have surely looked cute with her cat ear thingy she usually had worn when he had last seen her. He had no idea if she still wore that and didn't know how to ask about it without sounding stupid, so he never did. It wasn't like it mattered anyways.

"Don't. you. DARE, OUMA SHU!"

"Well, you see. That guy, Lelouch, he…"

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UUUUUUUUP!" she threw some couch pillows at him and managed to get him off guard, effectively knocking him over.

"Urgh…fine, you win."

"Let this be a lesson for you! NEVER try to spoil a show for me! You will regret it." She laughed proudly at her triumph.

"Yea, yea…" he sighed and got up. "Anyway, I brought something for you…"

"Oooooh, presents!" Tsugumi's eyes sparkled and she got off of the couch to collect her spoils of war from Shu. "It's too early for Christmas, but I don't mind at all. It's in the bag, right? Don't bother, I will get it myself." She took his bag of groceries from him and started looking inside.

"Wait, that's not…"

"…what's this? Toilet paper? You suck at giving presents, Shu!" she told him angrily.

"Huh, what's wrong with that? Everyone needs toilet paper." He claimed to his defense. Tsugumi angrily took one roll and threw it against Shu's head to demonstrate her disapproval.

Ayase snickered next to them. "I don't know…maybe Shu thought it was time for you to grow up and finally get the boring presents most adults get on Christmas."

"Oh yea? Well let's see how YOU will react when you get some rolls of toilet paper for Christmas, though you probably wouldn't care as long as it came from Shuuuu…" Ayase immediately turned redder than ever because of the way Tsugumi pronounced Shu's name, the younger girl being well aware of the crush her friend had had on Shu for a very long time now. Good thing the man was blind and couldn't see her embarrassment, or the former endlave ace might have considered killing her best friend out of anger.

Unfortunately for her, though, the dark haired hacker wouldn't stop at that. Trying to suppress her laughter, she managed to say: "Shu, you are totally missing out right now. If you could see Aya-nee's blushing face, you wouldn't be able to stop laughing." She finally succumbed to her urge to laugh and released all of it to her heart's content, filling the room with sounds of utter happiness.

Well, fuck it. That girl was going down.

Even Shu could feel the dangerous aura that was emitted by the former endlave pilot as she creepily sneaked up on her best friend, who didn't even notice from all the laughter she was going through at the moment.

"Tsuuuuuguuuumiiiii…!" The brown haired man cringed. She sounded like a demon who just broke out of hell.

When Tsugumi finally realized she was in trouble, it had already been too late. Ayase took her into a headlock that sounded very painful in Shu's opinion. It probably was better for him that he couldn't see. The noises were already bad enough as it was.

"Aya-nee…stop…grah…I am sorry…stop…need air!"

"Maybe you wouldn't need so much air if you hadn't been busy laughing so hard, huh?"

"Please, show mercy!"

"Never!"

Shu nervously tried to get their attention. "Uhm, I would really appreciate it if you could not kill Tsugumi, since I really need her help with something."

That got the girls' interest and they both stopped fighting. "Huh, what is it?"

"Well, you see…" he scratched his cheek, not sure how to say it, so he just handed them the other bag which had actually been meant to be given to Tsugumi instead of the one with his groceries.

"What? More toilet paper? The joke wasn't funny the first time, you know?" Tsugumi pouted.

"Would you stop with the toilet paper already?" Shu sighed and shook his head, slightly annoyed.

"Yea, yea. Fine. Now let's see what you brought…" The young hacker opened the bag and peeked inside, immediately tensing up and not moving a single muscle, like she had suddenly been turned into stone.

"Well, what is it?" Ayase wanted to know after Tsugumi had remained silent for a couple of seconds. When she still didn't respond, the brunette girl decided to shake the girl a bit to get her attention. "Heeeeey, Earth to Tsugumi, what's wrong? You look like you just saw a ghost."

"….I-i-i-it's…." Shu could hear the shocked girl whisper quietly.

"It's…?" Ayase repeated confused.

"c-c-c-c-c-c-co-compl-completely…!" Tsugumi continued to stutter.

"It's completely… what?" The brunette wondered.

"IT'S COMPLETELY SHMASHEEEEEEEEED! UWAAAAAA!" Tsugumi suddenly yelled out and burst into tears. Even Ayase backed off at the unexpected outburst, looking at Shu questioningly.

"Just what the heck did you put in that bag?"

Tsugumi suddenly stopped crying and looked at them in fury. "You want to know what's in that bag? I will freakin' show you!" She turned the bag around and emptied its contents on the nearest table, revealing the remains of the robot that had once been Funezo.

Ayase only sighed upon seeing the broken device. "So it's about your toys again…and I was already wondering what could have worked you up so bad…what's the deal? Can't you just fix it?"

"Of course I can!" Tsugumi yelled. "But that's not the point. The point is that this big oaf over there murdered him!" While mentioning an oaf she gestured at Shu who just sighed.

"She just pointed at me, right?" he muttered.

"Yep, she did." The brunette girl confirmed.

"Figured as much…"

Tsugumi was still furious and demanded an explanation. "What the hell, Ouma Shu? Care to explain how you managed to do THIS to him?"

"Hey, it wasn't me, seriously. It was some punk from Tennouzu High. Some guys were waiting in front of the supermarket I usually shop at and tried to make some trouble." He explained.

The girls went silent immediately and frowned when they heard the news.

"So it was those guys again…" Ayase scowled."What did they do THIS time?"

Incidents like these hadn't been that rare in the past. In fact, there were a lot of them in the earlier years. Most of them had been harmless, though, as people who despised him did seldom come at him with the intent to kill. Most of the times they had just come to mock him, making fun of his lost eyesight and claiming that he very well deserved it. There were a few cases where they threw stones at him, but Funezo was programmed to block them off, so the haters would get frustrated and leave. I few of the more serious incidents were luckily prevented beforehand because citizens had reported suspicious behavior from their neighbours, resulting in the police arresting a couple of people who later testified that they had planned the assassination of Ouma Shu. Their motives ranged from hatred to complete fear. One of them claimed he couldn't sleep at night, fearing the brown haired man would come for him to seek revenge, although said man had never had such intentions in the first place. He had pitied the man at best, knowing that it had been the feeling of guilt that had played such tricks on that poor bastard's mind.

"They said they wanted to 'finish the job' from back then." He told them calmly. "Luckily, they were just fooling around and I ended up taking them down. Things could have turned differently, though, if they would've had a gun with them." He grimaced as he imagined that scenario in his head. That would have definitely turned out badly for him. He may have had trained his hearing and had some pretty good reflexes, but he couldn't possibly outrun a bullet. "You can't face those blindly, right?" he chuckled on his own little joke, but the girls only exchanged serious looks.

"You didn't get hurt, right?" The brunette one asked worriedly, but Shu just shook his head.

"Not at all, they couldn't even touch me. Funezo didn't have so much luck, though…" he added the last part with a sigh.

A growl escaped Tsugumi's lips. "You had better taught those scumbags a lesson, Shu! For hurting Funell's kid!"

"Oh, I bet I did. One of the guys sounded like he was about to shit his pants. The other one was out cold by Funezo's electro shocker. Thanks for adding one to my stick, too, by the way. It proved to be very handy today."

The dark haired girl smirked at that. "Served them right to foolishly pick a fight with my creations! They should have run the moment they saw Funezo and that stick."

Shu sweat dropped at that and laughed nervously. He wasn't given credit to at all.

"They shouldn't have picked a fight with Shu in the first place. Served them right to underestimate him. He had always been the weakest Funeral Parlor member, but he had been a member nonetheless." Ayase added while folding her arms and nodding.

The blind man sweat dropped again. He wasn't sure if he was being praised or being bullied.

"Well, whatever…I will be in my room fixing the damage these baboons did…it won't be done until tomorrow, though." Tsugumi sighed while picking up all the pieces of Funezo and putting them back into the bag.

"I see, that's too bad…" That meant returning home all alone for Shu then. It wasn't that bad, but he would have still preferred taking the small robot with him.

Ayase, seeing the disappointment in Shu's face, suddenly had a great idea. "Hey, Shu? Want to stay over? It's pretty late already anyway."

The blind man was a bit taken aback by that sudden offer. "Huh? Would that really be okay?"

Even Tsugumi smirked. "Sure, I don't mind at all, just keep it down, you two lovebirds." That remark earned her the TV remote control, which Ayase forcefully threw against the other girl's forehead, silencing her immediately, though sending Ayase an evil glare while massaging the hurting spot on her head.

"Nevermind her, Shu. Let's leave her alone with her toys while we find something else to do." Ayase turned around and ignored the tongue Tsugumi stuck out to her. Shu followed the brunette girl as she made her way out of the room, leaving Tsugumi to herself.

After they had left Tsugumi, they had gone to the kitchen, sitting at the table while exchanging stories and drinking tea. Time passed by as they laughed and told each other of events in their daily lives they deemed interesting enough to share. Shu had the feeling Ayase did most of the talking, but honestly didn't mind at all. He was having quite some fun listening to her and she appeared to enjoy telling stories, so that was completely fine as far as he was concerned.

"…and then he was talking to me like I was some kind of mentally disabled retard and I said: 'Hey, I can't use my legs, but that doesn't mean I don't have a brain, unlike you.' So next thing he did was getting all angry and calling me names. When I finally had enough, I just took his hand and threw him to the ground!" The wheelchair bound brunette laughed cutely while telling her story. "You should have seen his face! He had no idea what just happened to him!"

The man who sat right next to her only grimaced. "I can pretty much tell…you used that move on me before, remember?"

That made her smirk. "What? You still mad about that?"

"Of course not, it taught me a valuable lesson, after all." He chuckled and took a sip of his tea. "It was pretty painful, though."

"There wouldn't be a point if it wasn't painful."

"Heh, guess you are right. So, any idea what Argo's up to lately? Haven't heard of him in a while."

She sighed with a frown. "That guy…he is such a pain to get a hold on, but I think he's…" she sensed Shu tense up a bit and lifted a brow on him. "Is something wrong, Shu?"

"I think I heard some weird sounds…like some sort of crackle of electricity or something? I am not sure."

Ayase fell silent and tried to listen, but couldn't make out anything. "You sure? I don't hear anythi…" she suddenly stopped midsentence and eyed her friend suspiciously. "Waaaaiiiiit, you aren't just trying to scare me, are you? You should know me better than to think something like that would scare me like it would a little schoolgirl…" she said that, but the moment the lights in the room started to flicker and the noise returned, now being loud enough for her to hear, she couldn't help but release a small yelp.

She saw Shu chuckle silently and immediately blushed in shame. "Sh-shut up! I wasn't scared! This is probably just Tsugumi's doing, messing around with too much electricity again."

"Of course you weren't." He shrugged it off while still smirking. Not believing her a word, but dropping the case for her sake.

The flickering didn't stop, as did the noise, so she seemed to grow a bit annoyed. "Jeez, it has never lasted this long before…what the hell is that girl doing…?"

That's when said girl arrived in the kitchen, not sounding any less irritated than Ayase was. "Damn it, Ayase, did you break the microwave again?"

Both her and Shu looked at Tsugumi in a puzzled manner. "You mean this isn't your doing?" The man finally said.

"Of course not…if it had been my doing I would have fixed it already…you don't think we have rats, do you? They could have damaged the cables…" The small hacker seemed to be deep in thought.

"Rats? Oh please, no…these things are gross." A frown appeared on Ayase's face.

They suddenly all fell quiet when something strange appeared right next to them. At first it had only been a small, glowing orb, but it grew in size, changing its form until it was as large as a human being and also had the shape of one. The girls needed a while, though, to see that, as the object appeared to be highly unstable. It flickered all the time and it looked like static more than anything. It honestly was like something came out of a broken TV and tried to materialize, albeit failing horribly in the process. Neither of them really had a clue what to think of this, with Shu being the most clueless, since he couldn't even see what was happening.

"What's going on, guys? Talk to me." He sounded very confused, though no one could blame him.

"I…I don't even know what to say…really…" Ayase answered. "Something just appeared out of nowhere and it looks completely weird…I can't even describe it."

"Maybe this is some kind of hologram? It seems to be awfully broken, though…" This time it was Tsugumi, trying to understand what she just saw.

"A hologram? Of what?" Shu wondered, but Tsugumi could only shake her head.

"Who knows? It's gone completely haywire…it could be anything…"

"Do you think it could be a person? I kind of had the feeling it was for a moment."

"Yea, me too. Let's hope it gets a bit better so we can actually SEE something…"

They stood in silence and watched the weird disturbance they witnessed just now. It often changed its position, while constantly flickering. It was somewhat creepy, but the trio somehow didn't feel threatened at all. They rather had the feeling the strange object tried to become more stable so that they at least could make out what it was, but was having a very hard time in doing so.

"This is sooo weird…" Ayase mumbled in amazement.

"Just where could this projection come from? I never installed any gadgets which could create holograms and it has to be either in this room to make us see the show or must somehow send it in through a window from outside, but that would be ridiculous, considering we are on the 11th floor." Everyone shared a puzzled expression as Tsugumi thought out aloud.

"Well, I hope it either gives us answers soon or vanishes…it's really getting irritating with it always changing its location…plus, the noise is starting to give me a headache…" Shu admitted.

The strange object continued its attempts for a while and then finally stopped, having gained some more stability. It still was unidentifiable, but at least it could stand at one point for more than 3 seconds, without flickering and reappearing somewhere else. The crackling noise also grew fainter gradually.

And then they heard it. A voice.

"Shu…"

The trio tensed up, completely shocked. The girls looked at the brown haired man next to them only to see all sorts of emotions in his face. Confusion, disbelief, astonishment, hope, fear, happiness…it was like his mind just crashed and tried to reboot, causing all sort of feelings to be mixed into one big lump of sentiment neither them, nor the man himself could really understand.

"Inori!?" he finally managed to say after gulping down what seemed to be a huge chunk of his disbelief. This couldn't be. It just couldn't. There was no freakin' way.

Tsugumi and Ayase weren't surprised any less than him, of course. Their minds were running with 300% of the usual speed, trying to simply understand what the hell was going on just now.

The object before them didn't make things easier for them as it now slowly showed some more details. It still was really hard to tell, but they now managed to at least make out a face. And indeed, it was Inori's. The eyes of the girls widened.

"I-Inori!" "Inoreen!"

They both said in the same time, still completely dazed.

Shu turned his attention towards them. "Do you see her? Is it really her?" He tried to calm himself, but his excitement was too big for that. His eyes were wide open in shock, but still never gave him any bits of vision. He cursed mentally, never had he wished to be able to see again as much as in this moment.

"Y-yea...I think so…" Ayase confirmed, Shu just stared at her in disbelief.

"But…but how…?"

Before anyone of them could even think about it, Inori spoke again, though it was hard to make out what she was saying due to her image being replaced with static every now and then, corrupting the message she was apparently trying to give them.

"Shu…the void…you must…please help us…Mana…dangerous…we need…"

"Hold on! I don't understand! What do you want me to do!? Please tell me!" Shu tried to get more information, but could feel her somehow fading again.

Ayase seemed to notice it too. "Is she going to leave!?"

"Can't we do something? Stay with us, Inoreen!"

But it was too late already. The image faded and the lights returned to normal. Not a single flicker was to be seen, nor a crackle to be heard. She was gone.

"No, wait!" Shu had yelled, but to no avail. "Damnit!" His robotic fist slammed against the wall, letting some of the plaster come off and fall to the ground.

They were all silent for a moment, until Ayase decided to break it.

"…what the hell was that?"

"Did anyone make out what she tried to tell us?" Tsugumi added.

Shu's expression darkened. "She mentioned Mana…"

"Mana? Who's that?"

"My sister…she was responsible for the apocalypse we prevented."

"You have a sister?"

All Shu could do was giving a small and quiet chuckle. "I used to, until she got mad with the thought of starting the apocalypse. She died on lost Christmas, causing the outbreak of the apocalypse virus. GHQ somehow summoned her soul and I had to kill her together with Gai. That had been the day he died for the first time. Later Gai came back and revived her by sacrificing Inori, but I managed to kill her one more time…does that mean she is back AGAIN?" The man grunted. "How often must I kill my big sister until fate is finally satisfied? This is completely ridiculous…it must be a joke…"

The man sat down and leaned his head on both his arms, trying to make sense of all this mess. Ayase, too, seemed lost in thoughts, hands folded on her lap and staring into the distance. Tsugumi leaned against the doorframe, thinking with folded arms when a sudden thought occurred to her.

"Maybe…maybe it really is?" She finally managed to say after a whole lot of silence.

The other two looked up. "What do you mean?"

The dark haired girl gulped, knowing they wouldn't like this, heck she hated the thought herself, but it was a possibility.

"Just think about it…who did Shu just meet prior to coming here?"

The man lifted an eyebrow. "Are you talking about these Tennouzou thugs?"

She nodded. "Yea…they knew you from way back, they also knew Inori. And you didn't really make a secret of how close you were…I know this is just the lowest thing they could ever do, but…what if they collected enough data of her from her various music videos on the web and created a holographic projection? The thugs who attacked you could either have attached some small device on you, which is capable of projecting holograms, or they could have simply bought someone else near you time by keeping you at one place long enough to hack your phone and make it create the projection when you reached home." She bit her bottom lip when she saw the man clench his fists in anger.

"Of course…but how could they have possibly known of Mana? It can't be coincidence…are former GHQ members involved, too? Only they could have known…I never told anyone before, except Mum who deserved to know."

"To do something like this…" Ayase muttered in anger. "They must really hate you to do something so lowly. GHQ members certainly had the motive, seeing as the ones who escaped are constantly on the run from the U.N. If they even did something as trivial as using a credit card or calling someone via phone, they would immediately get spotted and thus hunted. Their lives are pretty much ruined now either way, which they deserve of course, but it probably made them hate you with all their hearts. You didn't bring GHQ down on your own, but you are the most famous person for killing Gai and cleansing the world of the virus. If they would go after someone from Funeral Parlor, it would be you. They would also have the skills to hack into your technical devices from afar."

"And to work with the ex-students only shows their desperation, too." The young hacker added. " I guess everything would do for them as long as it made you feel miserable."

"So it's all…fake? Is this all just a joke to them? To mock the dead only to get to me?" he growled angrily and looked down in disappointment. "With scum like this around, I start to wonder if saving the world was worth it after all…maybe I shouldn't have bothered…"

For the first time in a very long time, they saw the look of defeat in the eyes of the blind man. The same look he had had when he had first awoken after the battle against Gai. When he had learned that he was blind, that Inori was gone and that he was not. The realization had left the man in a deep depression, where he shut himself at home and never talked to anyone, not even his mother. It had taken the continuous effort of all his friends and his mother to cheer him up again and after what felt like forever, they had managed to give the broken teen back some hope. That not all was over yet, that there probably still was a reason to keep fighting instead of giving up. Inori had given him this chance and he would have to use it, whether he wanted to or not. He owed it to her since it had been her last wish for him to live. And so he had decided that he would do exactly that.

But being reminded once again that his love was gone and the world still full of evil…you could say it threatened to throw all that newfound resolve out of the window again. Anyone would feel ripped off if he sacrificed so much for a world such as this, where ungrateful people would even step so low as to tear open the healing wounds in one's heart. And with every second he thought about it, the old feelings of depression he had previously locked away slowly broke loose, it's fierce grip taking hold upon his broken heart. Ayase and Tsugumi exchanged worried looks, before the older one went forward and put an arm on the man's shoulder.

"Shu…you mustn't let this get to you or they will get what they wanted, do you understand that?"

He frowned. "How could I possibly NOT let it get to me, Ayase. I just heard her. I heard Inori beg for my help, wanting me to save her from something. And I want to, I really do. I want to go to wherever the hell she is and get her out of there, yet I can't because she's dead. She's dead because of me, who was not strong enough to arrive sooner. She believed in me and I let her down…I failed her…"

Ayase glared at him angrily, refusing to let him give himself up so easily. "What's the matter with you? You were strong enough to save the world, yet hearing one fake sound clip brings you down? Get a grip on yourself, you are stronger than that!"

"Well, seems like I have got bad news for you. I guess I never was as strong as you thought I was. My bad to disappoint you."

The next thing Shu felt was some nasty pain on his left cheek with so much force, that it turned his head to his right. Ayase must've slapped him. It had definitely felt like one of her slaps. At least that never changed.

"There is nothing wrong with being weak and if the weak hide behind their weakness, no one can blame them for that because that's all they can do. The strong don't have this luxury. They have to stand strong and protect the weak. If they start to hide themselves behind false weaknesses, then all they become is worthless cowards. I KNOW you are no coward but that's no use as long as you don't realize so yourself. If you can't realize something as simple as that, you are a fool. And if you are fine with that, then that makes you the king of fools. Good night, _your majesty_!"

She had looked at him with serious eyes while telling him all that, hiding the sadness she got when she saw the man she cared about in this pitiful way. This wasn't Shu. This wasn't the man she fell for, yet would probably never get. She had already accepted that her love may forever be one sided, but she could never accept him going back to his old, weak self. It broke her heart seeing him this way. That's why she no longer could bear his sight and thus turned around to leave the kitchen, slamming the door behind her as she left. _'That idiot!'_ she thought and held back the tears that begged for freedom. She went to her room and locked the door behind her. She had had enough for the day.

Tsugumi honestly didn't know what to do in this situation. She wanted to cheer both of her friends up somehow, but needed only a glance at them to tell that nothing she could have said now would have mattered in any way. Shu just sat there, eyes staring into nothing, not even appearing to be conscious in the slightest. Her words wouldn't even reach him in that state…

And Ayase…well, Ayases problem could only be solved by Shu himself.

She hated feeling so useless, but had to accept the fact that there was nothing for her to do here, so she turned to Shu, wished him a good night, very well aware of the fact he probably wasn't listening to her anyway, and left for her own room, hoping the next day would start better for all of them.

Shu, on the other hand, continued to sit there alone in silence for a while, before he finally moved his hand on the spot Ayase had slapped him, wondering what her problem was. What was she seeing in him? What was she expecting? Whatever it was, he had failed her expectations, pretty much like he had all his life.

Thinking back, everyone always had had these high expectations of him, ever since he had first acquired the void genome. Gai had expected great things for him, so did the whole rest of Funeral Parlor back then, most of them had died for believing in him, including Gai. After them came the students of Tennouzou, expecting him to save them all, thinking he was some kind of hero. They were quick enough to discard him once they realized he wasn't, but things didn't stop there. Suddenly the U.N. expected him to storm the GHQ headquarters and kill Gai again, which he had done, but not because they had expected him to, but because he had wanted to save Inori. Of course, he had failed that task yet again. Now it was the world who expected him to be someone to look up to when he, in fact, wasn't.

His whole life seemed to revolve around people expecting much from him and him failing to meet these expectations. The only people who had accepted him like he had been, without having any expectations, had been Hare and Inori, who had both died more or less because of his failures. The only thing he was good at was failing, yet people still saw him as a hero while ignoring the fact, that he was just human after all. A weak, broken human that wasn't so much different from them.

He slowly stood up, realizing how tired he had become. He was tired of it all. His admirers, his haters, the people, their expectations, the world, the apocalypse he prevented...to hell with all of it. He just wanted peace already and what else could give him more of that but sleep. He found his way back to the living room and over to the couch Ayase had prepared for him to sleep on earlier. Without caring anymore, he fell onto it face down and just kept lying there.

Sleep was all he wanted now. To fall asleep and be in peace, even if only for the short while before morning would come yet again to drag him back into the painful reality which called itself life. But he wouldn't think about that now. He would just fall asleep and care about everything else later.

And soon enough he really did. Unbeknown to him, that the dreams he would so desperately seek peace from, wouldn't grant him any of it tonight.


	3. A fake for a fake

**3\. A fake for a fake**

He was dreaming, and man did he love dreaming.

Not least because in them the harsh, cold world of darkness that surrounded him at all times in the real world, faded and revealed a world full of color, beauty and possibilities.

That's right. In his dreams, he could see again. And as long as he wasn't stuck in a nightmare, which he had every once in a while, he was awfully glad about that.

For this world could show him anything he could possibly wish to see. Here, he could do whatever he wanted, no matter what it was. No limits, no restrictions. In here, he truly was king.

Nothing of it was real, though, he was sane enough to acknowledge at least that much. But it didn't matter to him. It was his chance to have some fun and peace of mind…and that's what mattered.

There were days when he would fly above the clouds, being amazed at the wonderful view his mind was able to make up for him, and there were also days where he just took a stroll through the mall with his friends, like he used to before he acquired the power of kings.

Most of the time, though, he would dream about an alternative reality. Where there were no voids, no substitute government, no terrorists, no apocalypse. Nothing. Just plain, normal life.

This was one of these days, he realized, as he walked next to Yahiro and Souta, leaving school grounds at late afternoon. They were all back to their 17 year old selves and wearing the Tennouzou High school winter uniform. The school itself also looked like it had once used to. No fortifications, looted crates or stolen trucks were anywhere to be seen, unlike the last memory Shu recalled of this place when he had left it together with the rest of the students of the day of the exodus. He immediately pushed those memories away, so he could fade into this fake world and live the life he wished he would have had instead.

"This is bad…the deadline for the video editing contest is already next week…will we really make it?" Souta groaned while putting his arms behind his head and letting it rest on them while he casually walked next to his two friends.

"Maybe we could if you would actually do some work, instead of letting Shu and me handle everything while you browse the internet." Yahiro replied with a sigh, shaking his head in disappointment.

"Hey, it's not my fault! There is always something to distract me, like the new single of EGOIST. Damn, Inori is so cute, I gotta head over to the music store and get myself a copy immediately…"

Shu chuckled at that. "Are you in for the music or the looks of the singer?"

"Both of course!" the black haired teen answered with enthusiasm, which left him as soon as he had said it. "Not that it really matters since YOU seem to have a monopoly on her. The girl wouldn't even look at me when you are in the same room…how did you do it? Magic? Voodoo? It has to be something like that, right?" Shu could hear the boy grit his teeth in annoyance, clearly jealous of the special relationship he and Inori had.

"Cut it out already, Souta. You should be happy a famous person like Inori even attends a public school like ours, let alone is in the same class we are." Yahiro said, not able to stand another one of Souta's famous ranting sessions about life's unfairness just because he didn't stand a chance with his hopeless crush on the pink haired singer. "Speaking of the devil, I think there is someone waiting for you over there, Shu." He noticed said singer waiting patiently at the school gate, leaning against the wall and watching a swarm of birds passing by in the sky.

The brown haired teen immediately smiled. "You are right. Well, see you guys around." He waved his friends good bye before running up to her.

Souta, too, noticed Inori and was about to call out to her, but Yahiro just grabbed him by the back of his collar and dragged him away from them. "Easy there, lover boy. We will have to have a serious talk about your motivation in making that video for the contest. Can't have you slacking off all the time now, can we?"

"No, let go of me, Yahiro! Damnit! Inoriiii!" He shouted while being dragged away, his cries growing fainter with every step they took away from the couple until it was finally quiet.

"Inori!" Shu called out while approaching her, immediately getting her attention. "You didn't have to wait for me. I told you it would be getting late today…" he said, feeling bad about making her wait out here all on her own.

She just shook her head. "I don't mind. I didn't wait that long."

"Still, you could have gone ahead without me. There was no need to wait for me, you know."

"There is no point in going home early. No one besides Funell is waiting there for me." She said. "Besides, I like going home together." Shu noticed her giving him a cute, small smile and couldn't help but smile in return.

"Well, shall we go then?"

"Mh-hm." She gave a small nod and took his right arm, which made him blush. Together they then started to walk to the train station. They lived in the same building and where pretty much neighbors. Shu and Haruka living in their apartment while Inori lived in hers all on her own.

There was a pleasant silence between them as they walked close to each other, enjoying the other's company and the beautiful look of the sky, being colored in all sort of orange and red colors due to the sun setting far in the distance. A cold wind would pass them every once in a while, but couldn't erase the warmth in their hearts which kept them warm from deep within.

It wasn't until they had reached the train station that Shu felt the need to put an end to the silence, seeing as they appeared to have missed the train by mere minutes and now had to wait a while for the next one. Talking surely would make the wait appear shorter and somehow more enjoyable.

Passing a vending machine, Shu took the opportunity to offer her something and start a conversation.

"Seems like we will have to wait a bit…want me to buy something for us?"

The girl didn't even need time to think. She immediately answered with a determined look. "Onigiri!"

Shu couldn't help but slightly laugh at that. "I think this vending machine only sells drinks, sorry about that."

The boy saw her narrowing her eyes as a sign of disapproval. He honestly never understood why she liked the flavored rice balls covered in nori so much. This girl could eat them to anything and anytime of the day, never growing sick of them. This habit of hers actually went as far as that Shu would consider her to be sick if he ever was to offer some of it to her and she was to refuse.

"Is there anything else you want?"

She looked over at the machine, not catching anything of particular interest and turned back to Shu. "I will have the same as you." She decided.

"Green tea it is, then." The brown haired teen inserted some coins and pressed the button for his desired drink two times. A few seconds later he was granted two cans of tea, of which he gave one to the girl next to him. "Here you go."

"Thanks."

The both of them sat down on the nearest seat they could find and continued to wait for the train while taking sips from their tea. After taking a huge gulp of his drink, he continued the conversation with a sigh.

"Look how late we stayed at school again. Club activities are starting to become such a pain for everyone in the modern motion picture research club since we decided to take part of that competition. Yahiro sure is a slavedriver. He is taking this pretty serious, even though the chances of us actually winning are slim…"

"You will win." She reassured him. "Souta showed me the progress you made on the video. It's pretty."

The boy chuckled at that, imagining his friend showing Inori their videoclips and trying to impress her with that. She probably hadn't even been listening to the things he said while she had quietly admired their work.

"I guess you are right, it won't be thanks to Souta, though." He said with a laugh. "How's your club doing? Is the school band fun?"

She nodded with a smile. "Everyone was very shy at first, but now they are all opening up and trying very hard. It's fun to sing with others for a change."

"I see, that's good. I bet they are all very happy to work with you, too." He told her happily. To be honest, he had been worried at first. When Inori had transferred to this school, the music club didn't spare a minute to recruit her, knowing very well that she was a professional singer. He had feared that their respect for her would isolate her, though, with them being too shy around her to make friends with her, but everything seemed to work out, so he was glad.

"They also seem to be very interested in you." She added, which surprised him.

"Huh? Me?"

She nodded. "When we aren't busy, they would always happily swarm around me and ask questions like: 'Well, what's going on between you and Ouma Shu?' and 'Tell us what's so special about him that you are always around him. Is he strong? Or smart?'"

The boy in question laughed nervously. He guessed that this had to be some kind of ritual for girls, so he figured it was alright. Getting slightly curious, he asked: "So…what did you tell them?"

"I told them you were neither of that."

Shu cringed. Ouch…that was a critical hit. _'That was too direct, Inori.'_ He cried mentally.

"They were staring at me and seemed to be slighty confused, asking me 'So then what so special about him?' to which I replied that you are you and that I like how I feel warm around you or how seeing you smile makes me happy. That seemed to have satisfied them since they all suddenly started smiling and hugging me. They told they were so happy for me and that I should give my best. What did they mean?" she wondered and looked over to Shu.

Said man was awestruck and didn't know what to say for a moment, blushing madly by the honest words of the girl next to him. "Haha, I wonder…" He took another sip of his tea to avoid Inori's curious gaze.

The girl then looked back to her drink in her hands. "For some reason, they were also asking about the length of your penis while grinning very mischievously. " she stated in a manner of fact to which Shu almost choke on his drink. She patted him on the back while he was spitting out his tea and coughing hard. "That's not how you drink tea, stupid Shu."

' _Those damn girls in her club are being too fucking curious…'_ he yelled mentally while blushing hard. "T-that's none of their business, Inori. Forget it."

She just tilted her head in confusion. "Are you embarrassed, Shu?"

"W-well, kind of."

"Why?"

"Because that's a question you don't ask people. It's like if a guy went around asking girls what size their breasts are."

"I wouldn't mind telling you…"

This was getting quite out of hand. "Well, I am honored, I think…but you wouldn't tell just anyone, right?"

"No…only you."

He smiled at that. "See? That's why those girls don't need to know."

She nodded. "Then I won't tell them."

"What? You still want to know?" he was surprised by that. "Why?"

"Because I want to show you I can keep secrets."

"If that's what you want, there are other secrets I could tell you…" he tried to dodge the subject, but Inori was sharp as ever and wouldn't have him do that.

"Do you not trust me with keeping that secret?" she somehow sounded a little disappointed in Shu'S opinion.

"That's not it…it's just that it's embarrassing to say." He nervously scratched his cheek and hoped she would drop the subject now. He sighed in relief when he saw her nod.

"I understand." Thank goodness. "I will ask Ayase then."

' _Fuck my life!'_ he thought while groaning and smacking his hand against his forehead. The whole school knew Ayase had accidentally seen him naked, due to a certain incident he would rather not talk about. Let's just say it involved a school trip, the hotel they were staying at during the trip and a certain girl who thought she didn't need to knock before entering his room. Oh, and a slap. Because why the hell not. Both of them would rather forget that embarrassing memory.

"That would be even worse, Inori." He sighed in shame while he remembered that incident. "You know what? I will tell you later in private. That okay?" Resisting any further would only make it worse, so he might as well give up. At least telling her himself would beat her asking Ayase, which would only earn him another slap for various reasons.

She nodded happily and let the subject rest afterwards. Much to Shu's relief.

The train finally arrived not long after and they somehow managed to get into it, despite it being filled with dozens of people who wanted to go home from work. Conversation in this state would have been awkward, so they simply stood close to each other as people in the train kept pushing everyone around. He couldn't help but notice the familiar scent of strawberries from her hair. It was just how he remembered her hair to smell all those years ago. He wasn't sure if remembering her smell was making him happy or sad, but before he could think more about it, he forced himself back into his dream self who had no idea of how reality truly looked like. He wanted to enjoy this dream reality just a little longer.

When they had finally arrived at their station, they were both relieved to finally get out of that sardine can, which called itself a train. The red and orange of the sky had turned into a faint violet as night started to slowly take over the rest of the day. The young boy took Inori's hand and slowly they started to make their way home.

Before they could get to their destination, though, they happened to pass a small open space in front of the mall, which had a huge Christmas tree at its center, catching their attention. It was several meters tall, covered in Christmas lights and thus quite nice to look at. Before they knew it, they were standing in front of it and looking it all over in admiration.

"It's pretty." Inori said, her eyes reflecting all the lights the Christmas tree displayed.

Shu nodded at that. "It is. I almost forgot that it's going to be Christmas soon." He also realized that he still had to get her a present. "Is there anything besides onigiri you want to have for Christmas?" he jokingly asked.

The girl, however, seemed to be seriously in thoughts. She then looked at him. "Will you be there on Christmas, Shu?"

He chuckled. "If you are fine with celebrating Christmas with Haruka and me, then yea, sure. No problem."

"Then I will be fine without any presents." She gave him a small smile and turned her attention back to the big tree before her.

Shu looked at her in amazement. If any other girl would have said she didn't need presents, it would have almost certainly been a trap, but if someone straightforward like Inori said that, then she meant it. She was so pure, so happy about his presence, that she didn't need anything else in her life. And this only made him realize more how deeply he loved this girl.

Again, he could feel the wall which held his memories of reality away, shatter slowly, as thoughts about her death crawled up in his mind, only making clearer that this wonderful girl in front of him wasn't real and that had lost her forever. Pushing those thoughts away like he had before turned out to be too hard this time, probably due to the wounds the fake hologram had reopened earlier.

And so he bore the pain as he fought back the wet sadness, which gathered at his eyes. Slowly, he wrapped his arms around her and held her close.

"Shu…?" She sounded confused, but didn't seem to dislike the hug since she didn't break it.

"I think I never told you how important you are to me, Inori." He whispered with a sad smile. "How you are always my reason to not give up and try harder…" That was the moment he felt her arms on his back, pulling him slightly closer into the embrace.

"It's alright, Shu. You don't have to say anything." She told him with a smile and closed her eyes, leaning deeper into the embrace. "I can hear your heart. It tells me everything I need to know."

"How can you tell what it says?" he asked in amazement. She had sounded completely serious just now.

"It's the same as mine. See?" She gently took his head with both her hands slowly put it down to her chest so he could hear. And indeed, her heart was beating as fast as his was, loudly enough for him to hear. "That means we feel the same way." She told him happily.

Shu let a tear drop as he once again realized how amazing Inori was. He didn't even need to tell her he loved her, she already knew. He quickly took her back into his arms, fearing she would even leave his dreams, like she was lost in reality.

"Inori…!" He cried. "Stay with me…please…don't let this be just a dream…!"

He could feel her stroking his hair affectionately while smiling warmly. "Don't worry, Shu. I will always stay with you."

"Thank you…" he whispered quietly and allowed his eyes to close so he could fully enjoy this moment. He soon realized, though, that her warmth had suddenly left him and sure enough, once he had opened his eyes again, she was gone. As where all the other people who had stood not far from them a moment ago. Everybody had just vanished.

"Inori…?" No answer. He was completely alone on the square with the Christmas tree still shining in front of him.

He could hear some loud, slow clapping sound behind him and as he turned around, he managed to spot a familiar blond haired youth in a white coat levitating not far away from him. He smiled with closed eyes, still clapping mockingly, creating a loud echo at the now empty square.

"I have always been curious about what the true king would be dreaming about. I have to say the dreams themselves are highly entertaining, but also very disappointing." He told him while shrugging with a sigh. "A king is supposed to dream of the future he will have, yet all you do is to dream about a past you could have never had."

The brown haired boy before him frowned upon recognizing the young man before him. "You…! In all those years I have never dreamt a single time of you…not even in my nightmares. And now you suddenly show up, messing up my dream? You have got some nerve…"

"While I feel slightly hurt about you not dreaming about me even once in 5 years, I have to tell you, that I am not part of your dream." He told him smirking.

Shu just narrowed his eyes. "Yea, sure. So your ghost has infiltrated my dreams. Sounds legit."

"Well, something like that. I dislike not being looked in the eye when talking to someone, and since you managed to get yourself blinded, I was forced to enter your dreams so that you had no excuse to stare into nothingness while I talk to you." He shrugged again and chuckled.

"I am not interested in any talk with you." Shu answered and turned around, planning to leave, when the envoy of Da'ath simply teleported himself in front of him.

"Always quick to make the wrong decisions, aren't you, Ouma Shu? Good thing for you that I plan to deliver the information I got for you whether you like it or not."

"Why so persistent? Last time I said 'no' to you and the apocalypse, you were quite fine with that and planned to kill me." Shu wondered in annoyance. So far all the people in his dreams acted the way he remembered them, yet this guy didn't. Was he really not part of his dream?

"Ah, but that was because I had a backup king to use instead of you. Granted, he wasn't nearly as good as the one originally chosen by Eve, but he would have done the job once you were done for." Yuu explained calmly. "Too bad he failed in the end. But there is always next time."

Shu glared angrily at the blond intruder. "There won't be a next time. Mana's dead and the apocalypse with her.

All Yuu did was simply shake his head while giving him a quiet, amused laugh.

"You are naïve if you truly believe Eve could ever die. It is Da'ath's will that mankind shall take the next step of evolution and thus Eve's soul will never be allowed to rest until she has fulfilled her role. As you have to finish yours."

"Not interested." The brown haired teen replied with an evil glare. Yuu just smirked.

"We shall see about that, won't we?" he levitated into a lying position, seeming to be highly comfortable that way. "If your interest isn't with Eve, I suppose it very well is with the fake you called Yuzuriha Inori?"

"How dare you…" Shu grit his teeth, but Yuu continued to talk.

"As I thought…" he sighed. "Your priorities are still off, but I can work with that. Inori it is, then. If I am not mistaken, you should have seen her today? Oh, pardon me, of course I meant you heard her…it briefly slipped my mind that seeing isn't your business at the moment." He was smirking again in a very mockingly way. It started to get irritating for the brown haired teen.

"So it has been YOUR doing, huh?" he assumed angrily.

"No, I am afraid not. I am the envoy of Da'ath, not the envoy of the void. Even I can't enter it. That's precisely why I am visiting you tonight." He folded his arms and looked down at Shu while speaking.

"Just what the heck are you talking about…" the ex-king mumbled irritated.

"So I DO have your attention now, huh? Good. Now I am hoping for you that you will be a good, little king and listen carefully, for I don't plan to tell you this twice. First off: Your precious fake is alive, as is Eve, the backup king you slew and pretty much everyone else who you saw dying to the thing you called the apocalypse virus."

Shu's eyes widened. "What…?"

"It's true, though it's your decision to believe it or not…humans, however, always cling to hope, even if it is only a small light in the dark. That's why I am sure you will believe it even if you now claim you won't because it does not make any sense."

"Then why don't you show me some proof, then?" Shu demanded while glaring angrily at the levitating envoy.

"You already saw proof when you received a message this evening. Not from this realm, but the realm of the void. You see, that's the tricky part. They may be alive, but they are trapped in the void, unable to escape it, because you messed things up, Adam."

"…how about trying to make any sense?" Shu growled.

"I will, don't worry. But for you to understand, you will first have to understand what the apocalypse is and how it works, as you seem to be heavily misinformed. Though no one can blame you for that since only Da'ath and Eve know the whole plan."

"You want to wipe out humanity so that Mana and her partner can start repopulating the world with the next step of humanity's evolution. That's what I get."

"See? That's what you got wrong. It would be ridiculous to kill every human being and start a new race with only two…repopulation would take forever and incest was never the key to create great and healthy offspring. Besides…killing all humanity would not be called evolution but genocide. Rather than doing that, the apocalypse was designed to have 3 stages." Yuu explained while lazily rising 3 fingers into the air, only to take two down again and start with the first.

"First, infecting humanity with the apocalypse virus and letting their bodies perish. The bodies would be useless anyway. What you would want to keep are the souls. Those would be transferred into the void." He raised the second finger. "Then, when the soul got to the void, it would be sealed into a crystal cocoon, where its new body would be developed. Stronger, faster, more intelligent…simply better. That would take approximately half a year for every human being on the planet." The third finger rose. "And finally, after the last human has evolved, they would be guided back to the normal realm, where they would repopulate the planet as the new, superior race. Amazing, isn't it? According to Da'ath people will even be able to store memories and emotions in crystals. Just imagining it makes me want to see it immediately."

Shu only frowned. "If you are planning to convince me into going through with this whole apocalyptic stuff, then I am afraid it isn't working. I am still not interested in the least."

"Figures, but I didn't really expect you to change your mind so easily anyway." The envoy of Da'ath shrugged it off and continued his explanation.

"Adam and Eve's job in all this is to spread the apocalypse virus, watch over the evolving humans and guide them back to the realm they came from where they reign over their new creations, watching over them and protecting them from any harm. They both can't finish even one of these tasks on their own. Meaning if Adam and Eve were to be separated, they could do neither of those steps."

"So in other words, since Mana is trapped in the void and I am still here, she can't start the apocalypse, nor leave the void, correct?" Shu combined with narrowed eyes.

The blond youth nodded. "Yes, that is right. For the apocalypse to start, Eve has to leave the void. Yet this is impossible without someone guiding her back out. She had previously been stuck in the void, but I was able to open a gate for her with the help of the group which called itself GHQ. I provided them with everything they needed to know and they had the resources and technology I needed to open a gate for her, even creating a vessel for her soul. But with GHQ gone, it will be up to you to open the gate, enter the void and guide her back into the realm of the living." He calmly said with folded arms.

"Not happening. Mana can stay where she is now forever. I will NOT release the apocalypse virus again by setting her free."

"Then I suppose you are fine with Yuzuriha Inori being stuck there forever with her, as she won't be able to leave the void as well." Yuu stated in a matter of fact, not impressed by Shu's lacking motivation to cooperate.

Said man was silenced on the spot and looked down while thinking. "So you are blackmailing me." He realized.

"I am merely giving you options. Go into the void and free everyone, or leave them to rot and live with the guilt of leaving them behind. I wonder what you will choose to do, Adam?" he told him with a wide smirk.

Shu looked down for a little while more, before locking eyes with the blond youth before him, determination clearly showing. "Fine, how do I enter the void?" he asked.

When he saw Yuu grin in triumph, he quickly added: "I have no intentions of releasing Mana. I will get Inori and whoever else I manage to find there and leave."

The blond boy just shrugged. "Fair enough, we will see what you can do. To get to the void, you will have to find the place in your realm that is closest to the void. I do not know where the void is, but its inhabitants do. They will try to contact you again. Follow them to the place they will guide you to, then use a void there to open a rift through which you can go. Should be easy for you, right?"

"It used to." Shu looked down and replied bitterly. "Back when I could still use the power of kings…!"

"And what makes you think you have lost it?"

That made the teen look up to Yuu in confusion. "What are you talking about? How should I get it to work when I can't make eye contact with anyone?"

The intruder just shook his head while smiling. Like parents often did when kids said something stupid without even realizing themselves. "What a foolish king you are. It doesn't matter as long as you make them feel like you are making eye contact. They will have to think you are looking deep into their souls, that's all. It's always about what's on their minds. Have you even tried to use your power since after the battle?"

"I didn't know how…there had also never been a good time to ask someone if we could try, with everyone just wanting to leave things behind and start a new life…" He admitted truthfully. "So I just assumed my days as king were over."

"No king rules forever…while that certainly is true, it doesn't mean a king gets to decide when his reign is over. Only death or a new king can strip the previous one of his duties. Neither of which were the case with you. There is a difference between quitting your own reign or simply choosing to ignore it. If you truly want to step down and leave the guilty crown to someone else, then death may be your only option." Yuu calmly explained, to which Shu could only chuckle weakly, shaking his head in the process.

"It's not like I hadn't thought about that. But then I would feel like I wasted the last gift Inori gave me, so I pushed those thoughts away and kept going. It wasn't always easy and recently I started to lose my resolve again, but…" He suddenly gave Yuu a determined look and clenched his fists. "But if it turns out that Inori actually was alive all this time and I still got a chance to save her, then that means all that crap I went through hadn't been for nothing. I will have to go find her. This time for sure."

Yuu gave him an amused chuckle. "Now you sound more like a king. Too bad you still fail to see who the real queen is. For you to choose a fake over the original…it is quite disappointing."

But Shu just smiled while the surroundings started to become brighter, shining slightly. "It's fine if she's a fake. After all, I am regarded as a hero despite not being one, too. A fake for a fake sounds about right to me."

"Even though you could have been the original…" The envoy of Da'ath sighed disapprovingly while everything around them started to fade into the glowing light.

"That's not important to me…there is only one thing I want in this world and I am going to get it back." Shu told him before the light finally reached them, too, engulfing them.

Yuu buried his hands deep into the pockets of his coat while closing his eyes and smirking. "I see. A fool until the very end…" Shu then saw him turn around and slowly go away, before the light got too bright to still see anything and forced him to close his eyes.

He reopened them soon afterwards, only to realize that he merely stared in a familiar darkness once again. He had awakened from his dream and returned to the painful reality.

Normally he would wake up with a feeling of peace and relief from the things he had seen in his dreams. But this time he felt worn out and dizzy. It was almost like he didn't sleep at all and so he began to wonder if it was still night time outside or not.

The warmth of the sun that came in from the window and the sound of faint chatter from the kitchen proved him, though, that the night truly was over and that he hasn't slept well at all.

"Urgh…weirdest dream I have ever had…" he sighed and fell back on the couch, half tempted to simply remain on it and give in to the tiredness of his body. "But was it really…?" he wondered.

Unlike the dreams before, this one had felt awfully real. At least the part in which that Da'ath kid had managed to appear. It was ridiculous to even believe for a second that anything of this had actually been real, but then again…what if it really had been and everything Yuu had said was true? He would never be able to forgive himself if by some strange wonder it turned out to be the truth and he simply ignored it.

"Well…only one way to find out." He figured and got up. Taking a deep breath, he mentally prepared himself for something he half expected to not work and somehow still wished it would. Slowly, he raised his left hand over his chest and thought of the way he used to draw out his own void. When he thought he had got it right, he tried to reach out for it, but couldn't feel the glowing opening required to free his sealed void.

"Figured as much…" he chuckled and let his shoulders slouch disappointedly. "I don't even know why I was expecting it to…"

He stopped his line of thought as an image of Inori crossed his mind and he started to think about the possibility of her being alive again. He had tried to accept her death in the past 5 years, telling himself she was dead and he should stop thinking about her as it would only hurt him, but now he couldn't help but hope. Hope for the slightest chance that she might still be somewhere out there, waiting for him. And if she was, then he couldn't afford not having his power. He HAD to reawake it. To get to her and save her. To bring her back and make things right again. To finally fix his mistake of letting her go all these years ago.

And so he tried again.

"Please…work…"

Nothing.

"Come on, work!"

Still the same.

"I said work, damnit!"

That was the moment the kitchen door opened and Tsugumi as well as Ayase entered the room with confused looks.

"Shu, who the hell are you talking to?" the brunette girl asked grumpily. "Don't tell me you've lost it?"

The hacker next to her tried to find an explanation. "I am telling you, he probably had a nightmare or something…he wasn't looking like he had pleasant dreams earlier, don't you think so? Maybe we should…"

She couldn't finish her sentence as they both suddenly witnessed a familiar glow from Shu's chest in which his left hand disappeared into, only to reveal dozens of beautiful silver threats, swirling around all over the room. Some of them started wrapping themselves around the blind man's mechanical arm, slowly covering it with a blue crystal-like material. Greenish lines covered the whole area of his void soon afterwads. The man lifted the arm and clenched his fist to test how it felt and when he realized that it was the same as before, he smiled in relief.

The girls, however, needed a while to get over their shock of seeing their friend with his void out again, or the silver threats that came along with it and continued to dance around in the living room like confetti on a children's birthday for that matter.

"Shu…you can still use voids…?" Ayase finally managed to ask, still barely believing what her eyes just saw.

"Just what is the meaning of this…?" Tsugumi asked.

"This means I still have a chance to make things right again…" Shu stated while looking down on his void, despite not being able to see it.

"Make things right? What do you mean? What are you trying to do?" Ayase wondered.

He turned around to them and gave them an determined look. The familiar feeling of his void was enough to reassure him that there was still hope. Knowing this, he was done with running away and hiding in the fake realities of his dreams. No, it was time to make those fake realities THE reality. The key to achieve that was literally in his hands, he just had to use it. There was no use letting his past failures get to him. So what if he had failed before? He just had to make sure he wouldn't fail this time. And heck he would. There was no way in hell that he was going to let the girl he loved down a second time. With a reassuring smile he finally said:

"I am going to save Inori!"


	4. Departure

**4\. Departure**

"I told you he has lost it…" Ayase sighed while bringing the palm of her hand to her forehead and shaking her head in the process.

"Back to the state of denial, huh…" Tsugumi agreed in a voice full of pity.

They sat in the kitchen, drinking coffee. Shu quietly ate some fried eggs for breakfast after confirming that they had been made by Ayase, not Tsugumi. A difference which could mean life or death in his opinion. He had returned his void back into his heart, feeling that it was somehow distracting the girls in front of him.

"It's all the fault of the fake hologram…" The brunette girl angrily growled while hitting the table with her fist. "That caused him going back to that state…"

"It hasn't been fake." Shu stated between taking bites of his meal, sounding completely serious.

Ayase rolled her eyes. "Oh, yea. And you know that because some guy in your dream told you so…wake up, Shu. We've been through this already. I know it's hard to accept, but Inori's gone!"

The black haired hacker next to her agreed with a nod. "I have to agree with Ayase, Shu. You have to stop this before you hurt yourself more…"

"I used to believe that as well. But what if I only used that to run away from the truth? What if Inori really is out there?" He replied, putting down his fork and knife as he finished the dish.

"And what if she isn't?" Ayase said, trying to bring the man before her back to his senses.

"Well, if it turns out that I am wrong, nothing will change. I will go back to the sad reality that had been my life for the last 5 years now. But if I am right, then this might actually be the chance I have wished for ever since I woke up after the battle." He explained and finished his coffee with a big gulp.

"You really are serious about this, are you…?" Tsugumi looked at him in disbelief. "And I was foolish enough to think you might have gotten over it after all this time."

"One does not simply get over something Shu had gone through, Tsugumi…" Ayase suddenly mumbled with a saddened expression. Tsugumi couldn't really understand how Shu felt because of Inori or how Ayase had felt when Gai had died. To understand something like that, you would first have to fall in love, which Tsugumi apparently never had had the time for in the past, considering she had previously been stuck with a terrorist's life, where love always had been put aside for later. Not many terrorists had had the luck to fall in love back then with Ayase being one of the few who actually had. All Tsugumi could compare this whole situation to at best, was the loss of a close comrade, like it had been with Oogumo. While that certainly had been sad as well, it hadn't been quite the same. Letting a friend go was certainly hard, but it wasn't as hard as letting go of someone you truly and deeply loved.

Ayase, however, could very well relate to the loss Shu had had. Not so long ago she had been devastated by the fact Gai had died and had had serious troubles with accepting said man's death. It had taken her quite some effort to deal with the pain in her heart and in the end, she had made it. But that was because Gai had made it easy for her. He had come back to life as the main villain, completely changed from the charismatic man she had once admired. In mere seconds, he had destroyed every feeling of affection and respect towards him she had built up over the course of years.

It had been hard to understand back then. How someone like him could have become the man he had turned out to be. But in the end, she had to admit that she was thankful for what he had done. After all, he had eased the pain she had had because of him by replacing her love with hate, thus saving her many years of grieving she would have had otherwise. In a strange way, he had freed her from him, allowing her to happily look forward instead of looking back in sadness.

And of course, it was thanks to this that she had been able to fall in love again. With someone who was still alive, who was kind and strong. Granted, he was also kind of an airhead at times, but still. Even though he didn't feel the same way, this man gave her happiness which she would have never been able to receive if Gai hadn't shattered his own image back then. It was because of that that she could put everything behind. Shu, however, never had this much luck.

From what she remembered from back then, he had fallen for Inori at first sight. Tried to be close to her and even managed to change the girl to such an extent that she would rather go against Gai's orders than letting him get hurt. She would have never done that for anyone prior to her meeting with that brown haired teen. Ever since then, they had grown more and more together, establishing a relationship based on mutual affection in mere months, where Ayase couldn't even bring herself to get any closer to Gai than the infamous friend zone after years of trying.

In a way, she had been envious of them. They had made it look so easy, like they had been meant for each other. Only to be torn apart like…that. Shu had tried his best to save her. Ayase would never forget the look on his eyes on the day they went out for the final fight. He had looked so strong, so determined. He didn't even think about the possibility of them failing. He even kindly smiled at her, that's how sure he was they would all succeed. It had been the day she had first realized that she didn't just like the guy, but actually loved him. His determination had inspired her and the whole team to give their best in the mission. For him to actually fail in the end…it had been horrible for both of them. For him because of his failure and for her because she had to see the strength and kindness in his eyes turn into disappointment and sadness.

When she had first seen him that way, she had immediately realized he would never truly get over this. That they could do whatever they wanted but would never be able to heal him completely. Maybe they could manage to build him up well enough that he would smile, or even fall in love anew again, but that hole in his heart? It could never be filled by anyone. Not even by Ayase herself even if she were lucky enough to win a place in the broken man's heart. That spot was saved for Inori for all eternity. Someone he couldn't get back. And that's why the brunette girl understood very well, that asking him to simply 'get over it' was something no one could do, for it was impossible for him to do it.

But still…claiming that Inori was still alive was taking things too far. Ayase could understand that he would always love the pink haired vocalist, but that didn't mean it was alright to go as far as to lie to himself. She wouldn't ask of him to forget Inori, she knew he couldn't, but he at least had to accept her death or he would only end up hurting himself when his false hope finally turns out to be nothing but that. False hope.

And she knew exactly how she would be able to make him understand that.

"You know, you are right." She finally said with a serious face. "It's been a long time since we have seen her last in person. Let's go."

Shu and Tsugumi were surprised at that. Not that the brown haired man minded, but he thought Ayase had given in too soon after being against it only moments ago.

"Seriously?" both he and Tsugumi asked at the same time. The latter not any less surprised than the first.

"Of course, get ready. We are going." The wheelchair bound girl simply replied. While taking her empty cup to the sink and turning around to leave the kitchen.

"You already know where to look?" Shu managed to ask her after mirroring her actions.

"Trust me, I know _exactly_ where to look." She sounded dead serious.

"Wait, what about work?" Tsugumi asked worriedly.

"Make a call and tell them we aren't coming today. We have more important things to do." With that she left the kitchen. Shu and Tsugumi looked at each other in confusion before following her.

-GC-

They had left the apartment soon afterwards, walking in complete silence while Ayase took the lead. Neither of them really had the courage to speak with the brunette girl the way she was now so they simply followed her quietly.

It took them a train ride and some minutes of walk to let Tsugumi finally realized what Ayase was planning to do.

Narrowing her eyes she mumbled: "…that place, huh? Well, it's true that we haven't been there for quite a while…"

"Huh? Did you say something, Tsugumi?" Shu asked, not being able to understand the faint voice of the girl not far away from him due to the sound of cars driving by right next to them.

"No, nothing…" She sighed and shook her head. He would see when he got there.

After that, the three of them went back to their silence. Shu soon noticed the sound of traffic growing fainter as they entered a quieter place. It was actually so quiet that he was able to hear a few birds and the sound of tree branches shaking in the wind. It sounded peaceful, like the park he often went to during spring or summer when he wanted to relax…only, this place felt a little different. Something was just off. It lacked the sound of chatting people or laughing kids. It was completely…quiet, almost too quiet. Few places were like this. The first that came to mind was actually…

"We are here, Shu." Ayase finally said. "I bet you can tell where we are, right?"

Shu looked down upon realization. "Of course…"

"Hello, Inoreen." Tsugumi finally said quietly. They then all bowed to pay their respects in front of her gravestone. That's right, Shu noticed, they were at the graveyard. They put a whole lot of new tombstones here after the fourth apocalypse failed. Not surprising of course, since many people died that day and the days before. Especially in loop 7.

"I can't believe you brought me here today of all days…" Shu quietly growled into Ayase's direction.

"What better way is there to show you that this is reality?" The girl responded harshly.

"What reality? All I know is that they buried an empty coffin here and set up a tombstone with her name on top of it. It doesn't prove anything." He glared angrily at where he thought Ayase sat. He was right, though. Since the apocalypse virus never left anything to bury, most of these coffins here were most likely empty.

"Or it actually proves everything, but you are too stubborn to realize it." She gave him the same look, though she knew he couldn't see it. "She is dead, Shu. They all are. Everybody understands that. You need to understand that, too."

He clenched his firsts and gritted his teeth. "But I could save them…"

"You can't!" Ayase said while raising her voice. "You can't bring back the dead!"

"GHQ could and I will too."

"GHQ had a lot of scientists and advanced technology, Shu."

"And still they fell to the power of voids."

"You gathered so many voids back then. Not a single one could revive the dead!"

"Then I will just have to look harder!"

They both glared daggers at each other but soon received a painful fist against the top of their heads by an angered Tsugumi.

"I seriously can't believe you guys have the nerve to fight here of all places…"

They both suddenly remembered where they were and immediately fell silent and bowed in apology in front of the gravestone. It didn't matter if Shu believed Inori was actually alive or not. He was in front of a grave and he had to respect that.

"We are sorry."

"So I was right…it really were you guys." The three of them suddenly heard a voice behind them. They turned around and realized an old acquaintance was standing behind them, raising his right hand for a greeting while smiling at them. "Yo!"

"Yahiro? What are you doing here? Haven't seen you in months!" Shu managed to say after the initial shock had left. He went forward and the two men shared a brotherly hug. Ayase and Tsugumi followed right after him.

"Yea, I know. I have been busy with work. It is good to see you guys again." The slightly taller man said with a smile.

Shu chuckled at that and gave him a "Yea, good to hear you, too." which earned him an approving pat on the shoulder.

"Not having lost your humor, I see. Good." He looked behind the trio and checked the name on the tombstone. "So you are visiting Inori, huh? You okay, Shu?"

The man knew for a fact that Shu had rarely come here in the past since he had tried to avoid thinking about the deceased. He did come every once in a while to visit Inori's and Hare's graves but he couldn't bring himself to come here regularly. No one blamed him for that. For him to come in the middle of winter and then getting into a fight in front of a grave only meant that there was a problem. Yahiro would have had to be a fool not to notice that.

Shu looked down with a sad expression. That was all the confirmation he needed. The troubled man didn't seem to plan telling him what actually bothered him. It was Ayase who spoke up in his stead.

"No, he's not. He believes Inori's still alive…" she explained.

"Really? How come?" He knew Shu well enough to know that such a thought couldn't have simply come from nothing and of course he wanted to know the reason behind it.

Tsugumi was the next to explain. "Well, we sort of had a little 'incident' yesterday."

"What sort of incident?"

Shu gave him a serious look. "We all saw Inori…"

"Though we pretty much all agreed that it was most likely just a prank…" Ayase quickly added and looked angrily at Shu, who still seemed to be in denial.

Yahiro, however, seemed to be rather shocked.

"You saw it, too?" That got the trio's attention. Shu was the first to respond.

"What do you mean by 'we saw it, too'?"

"Yesterday, right when I came home from work, I entered my apartment only to realize that the electricity was broken. The lights were all flickering and making those weird noises, so I was right about to make a call so someone would come and fix it. That's when I saw him."

The three of them couldn't stop their curiosity. Together they asked: "Who did you see?"

Yahiro looked at them with a serious expression. "Jun…"

"Wait, wasn't that the name of your brother?" Ayase realized. Shu just kept silent in shock.

The man in front of them nodded. "At first I wasn't sure if it was him, but the picture started to become clearer and I am positive it was his voice…" He shook his head, apparently still not completely able to understand what had happened the day before.

"What did he say to you?" This time it was Tsugumi who asked the question.

Yahiro only shook his head again. "Not sure…it was hard to make out. I believe he wanted me to get Shu, but I have no idea why…"

The trio in front of him shared a meaningful look. When the man looked at them in confusion, Shu told him: "It was the same with us. Inori tried to tell me something, but we couldn't quite understand what it was."

"What is the meaning of this?" Yahiro wondered and sighed. "I took a day off from my job today to visit his grave. To reassure myself that he is dead and that it just probably was some kind of hallucination from working too much…I guess you tried to do the same…I just don't understand how something like this could be possible…it doesn't make any sense."

"Have you been in contact with any people from back _then_ , who resent you?" The brunette girl asked with concern to which Yahiro only laughed.

"You must be joking. You DO realize the whole void ranking system was my idea, right? Of course I will never hear the end of it from those guys. Shu's not the only one on their list, you know."

"So that explains it. They did the same with Yahiro like they did with Shu." Ayase combined.

Tsugumi didn't agree so easily, though. "That would be highly unlikely. I see how they could make a hologram of Inoreen by collecting data from the internet, but Yahiro's brother? How did they even know him?"

Shu agreed to this. "She's right. I didn't even know of his brother myself. And I was pretty much a close friend. By the time we were in charge of Tennouzou High, Jun was already dead. Ayase only knows because she was there when I requested help from Funeral Parlor to get Jun to a save spot. I never talked to anyone else about it and I am pretty sure Hare never told anyone, too."

Yahiro blinked a few times in surprise. "Hare KNEW?"

"See? She never even talked to you about it. There is no way anyone would have known about Jun." Shu explained.

Yahiro let the stuff about Hare go for the moment and nodded instead. "Yea, I doubt anybody knew, too. I made pretty sure no one found out while I was still drug dealing. Shu was the first to ever realize and after that, things pretty much went down the drain and Jun died. I never talked about it to anyone. And if you didn't, then there was no way anyone would have ever known." The man seemed to be pretty down while he remembered the part about his little brother dying and Shu shared a sympathetic look for his friend. Knowing he was partly responsible for Jun's death.

"And even if they knew, there was no way they could have collected enough data to create a hologram. I bet even GHQ only had video material of him where he was already at stage four. The image of your brother was one of him where he was still healthy, though, right?" Tsugumi asked to which Yahiro only nodded. Her assumptions about Jun's appeareance weren't that farfetched since they had seen Inori without as much as a crump of the cancer on her, despite Shu's description of her being almost completely covered in it the last time he had seen her.

"Yea, they also couldn't have had a sample of his voice because he couldn't even talk anymore at that stage. Recreating a hologram of him should be impossible…"

Ayase frowned. "So where does that put us? It couldn't be a hologram, so what else could it have been?"

"I am telling you." Shu replied seriously. "It has to be a message from the realm of the void that Da'ath kid was talking about in my dream."

Tsugumi sighed in an annoyed manner. "Yea, but how likely is it that your dream actually was real? It was just a dream for god's sake…" She saw Shu folding his arms in frustration.

"Well, we got nothing else so far, so might as well believe in that theory until you guys come up with a better one…"

Ayase wanted to object but soon realized that no one here had a better idea of what actually might have been the cause of the phenomenon they had witnessed, so she gave in. "Fine. Let's go with that story for now. Assuming it is right, what do we do now?"

"We got to wait until they try to contact us again. I was told they would guide us to a place where we could reach them somehow." Shu explained to them with a frown. "But who knows when they will appear again…"

"I think 'right now' would be quite fitting…" They heard Yahiro mumble. Shu just chuckled while shrugging.

"Yea, wouldn't that be great…"

"No, I mean seriously…turn around." His voice sounded serious enough to assume he wasn't just kidding, so they did as they were told. Ayase tensed up and Tsugumi immediately took a few steps back in shock while Shu waited for them to tell him what they saw.

"He's right. There seems to be another one!" Ayase confirmed, sounding very surprised. True enough, another strange holographic thing had appeared quite some distance away from them. It was a very small and shining orb, not anywhere near human size, and slowly moving away from them while constantly flickering like a broken light bulb.

"For real? You aren't mocking me now, are you?"Shu asked them, not sure if his friends weren't just messing with him or not.

"Trust me, I wouldn't make fun of something like that. Not after I saw Jun yesterday…this is no joke." Yahiro answered honestly.

Noticing that the object was creating a growing distance between them, Tsugumi couldn't help but wonder: "Is it trying to make us follow it?"

"This could be a trap…" Ayase said while eying the disturbance suspiciously. "But we have no choice now, do we? It's our only lead."

Shu nodded in agreement. "After it!"

They didn't waste any time to give chase. Yahiro grabbed Shu's arm and lead the way while Tsugumi pushed Ayase's wheelchair so they wouldn't fall behind their friends.

The disturbance picked up speed after its followers did the same and quickly left the graveyard, leading them through various streets to their unknown destination. Whenever it happened to pass some traffic lights, they would start to malfunction, causing some minor accidents here and there. Luckily, nothing serious happened, aside from many drivers getting out of their cars and yelling at each other in rage, obviously not being happy with the situation and the damage that came along with it.

Strangely, though, no one of them seemed to actually notice the strange phenomenon that passed by them. A detail the 4 friends who gave chase didn't fail to notice. People were busy with glaring at each other or calling the police, but not a single one even as much as looked at the flickering object. It was like it was a mere ghost passing by.

"That's odd. No one seems to see that thing besides us." Ayase thought aloud.

"It certainly is weird, but not that irrational. With Shu seeming to be their main interest, it simply wouldn't make sense to appear in front of people who aren't staying in contact with him." Yahiro figured while jogging.

"Even more so if they have such a hard time materializing in this world…if you could even call it that…" The brown haired man, who followed him, added.

"Have you guys noticed we are getting closer to loop seven?" Tsugumi pointed out, being slightly out of breath from running. "This might actually become a problem…"

"Yeah…" They all frowned at that. Ever since the fall of GHQ, loop seven has been sealed off from the public. At first the area had simply been ignored since there was no government who could deal with it at the time. When a new government was formed slowly over time, there had been more important problems to attend to…like abolishing all old laws which were made during GHQ's time…especially those who were going against human rights. Then there were new laws to be written down. Mostly all of them being the old ones from pre-GHQ times, with some additional ones to ensure the U.N. never got to have a say in Japanese government ever again. That seemed fair, considering GHQ HAD been their idea…and it was also them who had planned to erase Japan from the map at one point during the crisis. The citizens of Japan sure as hell would never forget that. The U.N. got into serious trouble by many human rights activists from all over the world once their action became public and even many influential people who originally supported the plan were furious afterwards because so many lives were lost in a failed attempt. They had messed up pretty bad no matter how you looked at it.

When things had started to get back to normal more, people had actually had time to think about loop seven once again. Some wanted it to be rebuilt completely, while others wanted to let it remain as it was, serving as some kind of memento to all the things Japan had to go through in the past years. Coming to a decision would prove to take longer than originally thought at that time, but eventually, after a long year of arguing and planning, scratching plans and re-planning anew, they had finally come to a conclusion.

Because loop seven was too big of an area to simply be left untouched, they would have to rebuild it eventually. Tokyo was big and full of people. People needed room and there was a lot of it in loop seven, so it would have been simply stupid to ignore it. However, with most of the area severely damaged to a point beyond reparation, it had to be redone completely. Old, half standing ruins had to be torn apart, streets needed to be reestablished, debris needed to be moved,…almost a whole district had to be completely rebuilt. And that would take time. The only thing they could actually leave to the posterity of Japan was the very center of loop seven, where buildings were still in pretty good shape. Mainly because a certain group of students had been operating there, keeping things mostly intact so they could still use it. Thoughts were voiced of Tennouzou High being left as a memorial, maybe even being reopened at one point in time in the future so students could actually study in the halls their predecessors had banded together to survive. It sounded good to the people who hadn't been involved. Of course it did, Shu thought, after all they didn't really know that it wasn't so much 'working together', but rather 'a tyranny built in anarchy'. He wouldn't call it all bad, though. He had saved most of them and it actually would all have went smoothly if a certain blonde girl never would have betrayed him in the end. Though he could partly blame himself for that. He should have paid closer attention to the students and should have relieved the tension growing amongst them. He certainly HAD put too much pressure on them back then.

The blind man shook his head. He had no time to think about this now so he continued running instead, still being guided by Yahiro.

They came to a halt when they reached the entrance to loop seven. The whole area was sealed off by a mere fence of several meters height. A barricade the small group found to be a bad joke, considering they still could clearly see the tall, moving walls of doom from back then in their memory. Walls people died at, shot by ghost unit endlaves. Today, all this kind of wall was defended by were two underpaid policemen, standing guard in front of the gate to ensure only people who actually had work to do in there could enter. After all, it wasn't a place for kids to run around in, where they could easily get buried alive by a collapsing building.

The small group of friends hid behind the corner of a nearby building and saw how the mysterious flickering object flew over the fence. Luckily for them, it remained there…apparently waiting for them to come. It had actually grown in size now and also become a whole lot more stable. It didn't flicker all that much anymore and was starting to get the shape of a person, though they could still not make out a face.

Tsugumi sighed in frustration. "As I thought…of course it had to be loop seven…now what?"

"I can't believe we are going to try to actually break _in_ there, when we had so much trouble getting _out_ not so long ago…" The ex-drug dealer next to her frowned while taking a closer look at the fence and the guards.

"No kidding…there aren't any good memories coming up when thinking about that place…" Shu agreed and touched his robotic arm, feeling some slight phantom pain as he recalled the memory of him losing it.

He heard Ayase's voice right next to him. "At least our 'visitor from another realm' is patiently waiting for us…but how do we get over the fence?"

"How about we just go around it and try to climb over it once we are out of the cops' field of vision? It is kinda high, but not impossible. Especially if you compare it to the previous one…" Yahiro voiced his idea, but only received an angry glare from Ayase.

"It is impossible for me, genius. Unless you plan to carry me on your back." She was pointing on her obviously inoperable legs, in case Yahiro didn't catch the drift.

Said man only growled in annoyance. "No, thank you. Climbing this would be hard enough as it is…even without a heavy weight such as yourself on my back."

The brunette young woman gritted her teeth at that statement. "You are just a wimp. Even Shu can carry a lady like me, while you would break down trying to lift a feather…"

"Come on, guys, cut it out…" Shu said with a frown. "And what do you mean by 'even Shu'…?" he grumbled the last part.

"Why don't you just go in there and zap those cops with your cane, Shu? There are only two you know?" Tsugumi told him with a smirk. Yahiro rolled his eyes at that.

"Yeah, good idea. Let's send in the blind man. Aren't we heroic…?"

"Not to mention that the whole area would be swarmed by SWATs and maybe even endlaves in a matter of minutes…" Ayase added with a sigh.

The black haired hacker among them pouted while sending every one of them an annoyed look. "Geez, it was a joke…you guys have no humor…"

"I believe we won't come around using a void here…" They heard the brunette, blind man mumble quietly next to them. Yahiro raised an eyebrow at that.

"Voids? Where did that thought come from? You haven't done that in years…I thought you couldn't do it anymore."

"Yea, me too, but I just never tried. I pulled out my own void this morning…it worked fine."

"Nearly gave us a heart attack, though…" Tsugumi mumbled under her breath before raising her voice again. "Anyway, just give Ayase her hovercraft-stuff and we are good to go, right?"

"I wouldn't mind doing that, but it would only draw unnecessary attention." Shu replied rationally.

"Well, what else are we gonna do? Cut the fence with Yahiro's shears?"

Everyone looked at her with a meaningful expression on their faces. The black haired girl suddenly turned pale upon realization.

"Wait, me!? Heck no! I am outta here!" She tried to turn around and leave, but Yahiro blocked her path.

"Ayase, Yahiro…would you kindly…?" Shu asked his friends with a smile and both of them understood without him even finishing his own sentence. They both grabbed one of Tsugumi's arms and held her in place. To say the girl looked terrified would have been a horrible understatement.

"W-wha-? T-Traitors! Release me!" she demanded while struggling forcefully. It was to no avail.

"Relax…you've been though this a couple of times already…" Ayase tried to comfort her. Yahiro just sighed.

"What's all the drama about? It doesn't even hurt all that much…"

"It's freaking WEIRD! I hate that feeling! No, don't come closer, Shu! I…I will bite your hand off! I swear!"

"Tsugumi, you will have to focus on my eyes. Imagine I am looking deep into your soul or it won't work." Shu explained while getting in position. He used the sounds of protest the girl in front of him was making to figure out where her face was. He then tried to look into her eyes as best as he could, hoping his guess was accurate enough. He could feel a familiar feeling of power rushing through his left arm and into his hand and he interpreted that as a good sign as any to start reaching out into Tsugumis chest, so he did…

…only to horribly fail and grope her right breast instead. Everybody fell silent immediately. Ayase was the first to speak up with narrowed eyes.

"Oi, Shu…what's with this act of pervertism? I am not helping you so you could sexually harass her, you know?"

Yahiro chuckled and added: "Never one to pass on an opportunity, eh Shu? Like back then when you groped Kanon's breasts in high school. Good times…still have the photo on my mobile if anyone wants to see…"

Shu just made an annoyed, yet embarrassed expression. "Hey, this was hard even when I still had my eyesight, so cut me some slack here, okay? And I thought I told you to delete that picture, Yahiro!" The last part was obviously directed at said man who only laughed.

"Like hell I would. I like to look at it every now and then. Always good for a nice laugh, you know?"

"Mind taking your hand off my breast already, pervert?!" Tsugumi interfered with their conversation with a furious glare. She was red as a tomato, though more because of her embarrassment than her anger.

Shu returned his attention to the complaining girl and complied immediately. "Oh, sorry. There wasn't much to feel, so I kind of forgot. Did you even grow at all during these 5 years? Maybe you should try eating healthier food or something…"

Yahiro and Ayase just snickered at that while Tsugumi glared at him like she was trying to kill him with just the look of her eyes. It failed, though. Shu never noticed and only wondered why both his friends where snickering when all he did was tell her his honest concerns.

The girl finally groaned in frustration. "Whatever, get this stuff over with already…and do it properly this time!"

"I think it is actually you, who isn't trying hard enough, Tsugumi…" Ayase mentioned. "You closed your eyes when he was about to do it, didn't you?"

"Well of course! This is embarrassing after all!"

She heard Yahiro chuckle again next to her. "Well, you just made it a whole lot more embarrassing for yourself by doing that. Not that I mind, though."

"Argh, fine! I will do it, just get it over with…" She gave up and looked into Shu's eyes again. The man in front of her repeated his movements from before and this time it actually seemed to work. His eyes turned into a reddish color and the symbol of the king's power appeared on his hand as he slowly plunged it into the glowing hole in her chest. She let her head fall back when she felt her mind go blank, but it soon returned to her once she felt the touch of his right hand on her left one, preventing her from falling unconscious. By the time she could feel his hand leave her body again, she was already looking at her extracted void in Shu's hand, surrounded by a faint glow and a couple of the distinctive silver threads that usually came along with those amazing objects Shu managed to pull out of people.

"I will never get used to this…" She grumbled and let out an exhausted sigh, obviously relieved that it was finally over.

Yahiro had just looked at Shu in amazement during the whole process. "So you really ARE able to still draw those things out…man…this feels nostalgic…"

"If it already feels nostalgic to you for just seeing it, you probably can't imagine how this feels for me…" the blind man told them with a smile. He felt like he just rediscovered a lost part of himself and it was an amazing feeling. He probably hasn't felt this good at any time during the past 5 years.

To avoid wasting more time, he used the void in form of a hand scanner and scanned Yahiro's body who was standing right next to him. When he was done, he created an exact replica of him and waited for it to 'activate' which it promptly did when opening its eyes.

"Heh…not bad…mind if I keep him so I can send him to work while I relax at home?" Yahiro asked with a smirk. It seemed like his job had been pretty tiring for the man lately. Shu only chuckled in response.

"Nothing much you could do, considering you would have to hold the void at all times or it would vanish alongside the clone. You also always have to give it orders mentally so I think going to work personally would be easier."

The taller man sighed. "Figured as much. Would have been too good to be true otherwise…"

Shu then proceeded with changing Clone-Yahiro's clothes to shadier ones. He now wore a hooded pullover and wide clothes which made it pretty much impossible to see his exact figure. He also shrunk the clone by a few centimeters so that it clearly was distinguishable from its original, even if the clothes actually had been the same. The clone then proceeded to hide his face under his hood as soon as Shu was finished with doing everything else.

"Hey…what's up with this gangsta-look?" Yahiro wanted to know. Shu grinned.

"You'll see."

He gave the clone orders to move towards the cops while the remaining group members watched him around the corner, curious what this was all about. The cops soon noticed the newcomer and asked him what business he had here. They never got an answer as the replica simply smacked the first one with his fist, almost knocking him over in the process. While the other cop was busy catching and helping his friend up, the replica turned around and ran, only to be yelled at by both cops who gave chase immediately. The group watched in amazement as they witnessed the scene in front of them.

"Well, I guess you aren't that much of a wimp after all, Yahiro. That punch sure hit the spot." Ayase acknowledged, sounding a little surprised.

Said man wouldn't have it, though. He seized Shu by his collar and yelled: "Are you fucking trying to get me arrested!?"

But Shu only laughed at that. "Relax, they never saw your face. Plus, the copy of yourself was noticeably smaller than you, not to mention that they won't catch it as it will vanish from existence once it gets them far enough away from us. They will never be able to identify you…"

"Though it wouldn't be so bad if they would, considering you sold Shu out to GHQ before, right? I guess that would be karma." Ayase added while eying Yahiro with narrowed eyes and folded arms. She never forgave him for that since not only did he put Shu into danger by doing that, he also risked the lives of quite a few Funeral Parlor members when they had to get him out of prison again. Sure, they managed to get Kido out, too, but that still could have been done with fewer casualties if things would have been going according to plan, instead of them having to improvise.

Yahiro let go of Shu after that and sighed with closed eyes, obviously feeling quite bad about it, but not wanting to show it all too much. "Jeez, I told you guys I was sorry. I know that won't cut it, but there is nothing else I can do about it now…"

"We don't have time for this, guys. Let's use our opportunity while we still have it and enter loop seven before those cops realize they were tricked and return." It was Tsugumi who tried to reason with them. Before Ayase could complain any further, her wheelchair was being pushed forward to the gate, leaving Shu and Yahiro to themselves.

The latter awkwardly cleared his throat. "Well, about all this getting you arrested stuff…" He wanted to start but Shu quickly waved it off.

"Shut it, Yahiro. Just look at me. I lost an arm and my eyesight. Do I look like I would still care about getting arrested at one point in my past? Besides…I DID use your void dozens of times and risked your life by doing so. I guess that makes us even…"

Yahiro couldn't help but smile at that. "Right. Just wanted to tell you that I won't pull such stunts anymore. I got your back."

"For now you can have my arm instead to drag me into the right direction. We don't want the girls to get too far ahead of us now, do we?" He answered with a smirk. "Running around blindly is such a pain, really."

"Tell me about it...it would all be much easier if you could see. Wouldn't have to drag you after me and watch out for stuff you could trip over." Yahiro agreed with a sigh before taking hold of Shu's arm and continued to guide his way as they ran after the girls. "Jeez…those two didn't wait for us at all. Come on, let's hurry."

"Heh, right behind you."

It took them a bit to catch up with them but they did so nonetheless. The small group then resumed their chase after the ghost who had taken the lead again as soon as all four of them had passed the security gate…if you could even call it that, considering how easy it was breached by a small group of mere civilians. The pace in which the holographic person was floating ahead of them now, was rather slow, which allowed them to follow it with walking speed and thus gave them the opportunity to look around the ruins of loop seven, where debris and car wrecks adorned the surroundings.

It was a picture you would expect from an area that had faced the consequences of an apocalypse which got only prevented at the last second. The only things that were amiss here were the huge crystal formations that have left together with the virus and the corpses of the fallen, which luckily were already collected and removed a long time ago, even before loop seven had been sealed off. After all, people had wanted to know if their friends and family members, who had been unfortunate enough to actually get stuck there, really were dead or just still lost there. Of course, most of them turned out to be dead in the end, either shot by the ghost unit endlaves who had guarded the wall or succumbed to famine or the effects of the virus due to the lack of vaccines and food. Everyone, who in fact had survived that chaos, had left that hellhole as soon as they noticed that the ghost units stopped operating.

It wasn't like nothing here had changed, though. The group could clearly see where the renovation had begun as some places were already cleaned of debris and makeshift roads for various construction vehicles had been established. They could also spot a few cranes and hear the loud noise of jackhammers in the distance, clearly showing signs that work was actually done here, which was good.

With the area being so big, however, they never really stood at risk of walking into people who would question their presence here. Especially since they continued to travel to the very core of loop seven, where work was far from even being considered to be started any time soon. And so the noise of people was slowly left behind them as they ventured deeper into the ruins, where they also soon started to recognize their surroundings since more and more buildings around them happened to still be more or less intact, matching the images provided by their memories. Yahiro was the first to notice that.

"Is it just me or is this…thing…leading us to Tennouzou High?" He obviously struggled to find a fitting word to describe the ghost they were following around.

"Now that you mention it...I think we really are heading that way." Tsugumi agreed.

Ayase for her part just shrugged it off. "I am completely fine with that. That school is probably the only building around here which isn't going to collapse any time soon. Imagine if we had to check out some run down building and it starts to fall down on us…I'll pick the school over that every day."

The blind man gave her a nod. "Ayase has a point. Besides, I already figured it would come down to this. Tennouzou was where we collected all the voids in the area…of course that would cause the gate to the void to appear right there. If it had turned out that it actually wasn't there, then the former GHQ headquarters would have been my second guess."

Hearing that, Yahiro couldn't help but sigh in relief. "Lucky for us that wasn't the case. Since they are already building something new there, they would have never let us enter that place."

"Not that we were allowed to be here, either…just saying." The hacker among them pointed out with a smirk. She just seemed to enjoy doing forbidden stuff, being a hacker and all.

"Fuck the police, right?" Shu chuckled to which she only replied with a cheer.

"Hell yeah!"

It was only moments later when they arrived at their old base of operations during the lockdown of this district. Tennouzou High. Walking through the open gates and passing several fortified walls in the process, they realized that all was still exactly the way they had left it. They could spot the broken vehicles in their makeshift 'garage' they had left behind, as well of the remains of the last crate of vaccines they had looted from somewhere, brought here and forced it open to distribute them among the students. Needless to say that there hadn't been enough for the F ranks in the last days. Some of the tents that had been set up on the sports ground happened to have blown away, but aside from that, everything was the same.

The only thing that really missed in the picture were the A-ranks patrolling the area…as were the rest of the students for the fact. If it weren't for that, the small group of four might have actually thought they had returned here from a long mission.

"Home sweet home, huh?" Tsugumi jokingly mumbled.

"Heh…I was about to call out to the guards to open the gates out of habit…until I realized there were none." Yahiro, former sidekick of the President, admitted with a slight smile. From the corner of his eye he could see how the girl in the wheelchair rolled her eyes.

"I bet you also nearly shat your pants because of that for a second, thinking 'Where the fuck are the guards? What if we were attacked?'"

"I won't deny that."

"You always were one to over think stuff."

"It paid off in the end, didn't it?"

"Not for me, though." Shu butted in while raising his fake arm. "Barely survived that."

"Good thing you did or we would have all been screwed. Come to think of it…how did you not die from blood loss?"

"Inori sealed off the wound with crystals…" He explained. 'Or maybe it was Mana…like I could have told the difference in the state I was in. I was busy staying conscious during the treatment she gave me, so who knows…' he added in thoughts.

"Crystals…? Nevermind…I probably don't even want to know…" Yahiro decided and let the topic rest afterwards.

Meanwhile, the image of the ghost they had followed started to gradually become clearer with every step they took towards the main building. Slowly, they managed to identify the clothes the person ahead of them wore to be the female Tennouzou High uniform, followed by her beautiful brown hair with two small pigtails left and right. They only saw her from behind but that was all they need to figure out who that girl actually was.

"Oh my god…is this…?" The only man amongst them, who could see, managed to say in shock.

"It's Hare!" both girls realized, sounding shocked and happy alike.

Shu immediately came to a halt when he had heard them. "Hare…?"

Said girl stopped, too, and turned around, looking kind of flustered. She waved her hands hastily in front of her, as if she didn't want them to look at her. "Ah! You see me!? D-don't look at me! I am sure I messed up my projection and look weird."

"Well, you are transparent, if you mean that…" Tsugumi told her while scratching her cheek nervously. That certainly was an awkward reunion.

"Really? I don't appear distorted in any way or something like that?"

"Nope, not even a flicker anymore. The best image we have seen all day." Ayase assured her to which the transparent girl only sighed in relief.

"Thank goodness."

Shu was standing behind them like he was frozen solid. He never thought he would hear that voice again. That sweet, soothing voice that had always been by his side since middle school, be it in form of laughter, a scold he very well deserved or to give him comfort when he felt down. Just hearing it again drove tears of happiness to his eyes.

"Hare…" he managed to bring out. "It's really you, Hare…"

She turned her attention to him as his friends stepped aside, so she could actually look at him.

"Shu…it's been so long." She said with a kind smile, truly happy to see him again. That's when he couldn't hold the tears back anymore and released them altogether, taking the not-so-dead girl a little by surprise.

"Eh? Shu, what's wrong? Please don't cry!" She told him nervously while attempting to give him a comforting hug. When her right hand was right about to touch him, though, it clearly passed through him, making her pull back immediately. "Oh no…"

She then started to look around in panic…what was she supposed to do now?

"I am sorry, Hare…so sorry. I should have saved you…"

She shook her head hastily, still searching for a way to cheer him up again. "Don't be like that, Shu! I am alright! More or less, at least…and now that we finally managed to get you here, everything will be better. You can save us now!"

"Tell me how…I will do anything." He told her full of resolve, wiping away his tears in the process.

She smiled when she heard that. That was the Shu she remembered. She was glad he was still the same after all this time. Her expression soon darkened, though, as she remembered that he was about to enter the void. The things that waited for him there…they certainly would get to him.

"Maybe…maybe you shouldn't come…" She told him with a sad expression. She could clearly see the shock in everyone's faces.

"What are you saying!?" Ayase asked her in disbelief. "We thought you died! Now we see you again after all this time, ready to save you and you are trying to send us off? You can't do that now…"

"Yeah, Aya-nee is right. It is too late to back off now, girl. Just spill the beans already, jeez!"

Even Yahiro agreed. "You know…you wanted the help and I would say you got four willing persons who are up to the task. Might as well go for it now."

"But…" Hare tried to object but got silenced by Shu's kind smile, making her blush slightly.

"It's no use, Hare. You are clearly outnumbered on this, so just tell us what to do already."

She looked down after hearing them all say that. "It's dangerous…very dangerous. I don't want you to get hurt."

"Even if I were to die trying, I would still go, Hare. I've waited for this chance for so long…don't send me home empty handed now…"

She sighed. "I know you would…that's why I am reluctant on sending you there…I don't want you to die, Shu."

"I can't even die when I plan to…" He told her, thinking back to the moment he was about to sacrifice himself for the world. "How can I possibly die when I have no intentions in doing so then?" She heard him laugh slightly. She hesitated but eventually pointed at the entrance to the main building.

"You have to go to the main entrance. I was told you have to stand in front of it and draw out a void. That should cause a rift to open through which you can enter the void. Only you can go, through."

The others didn't hesitate to show her their disapproval.

"What? What do you mean 'only he can go'? We are here to help, too!" Ayase objected.

"I know and I am really sorry about that, but that's just how it is." The transparent girl explained with a sad expression.

Yahiro wasn't any happier about this than Ayase was. "Come on…surely there must be a way? Shu is blind, for god's sake, he can use every help he can get. Besides, I don't want to be the guy who stood at the sidelines while his friend had to do all the work on his own anymore. I felt bad enough the first time I did that."

"Yeah…what are you expecting us to do? Wait outside for his return, doing absolutely nothing?" Tsugumi added, looking very disappointed.

"I am sorry…I don't make the rules…that's how the voids works. Only Shu can enter."

Shu wasn't showing any signs of backing down. With a determined look he said: "Alright, let's go then." and stepped forward.

Yahiro, however, stopped him by taking a hold of his shoulder. "Wait, Shu! This is madness! You can't go alone!"

"Yahiro's right. It's too dangerous!" Ayase agreed.

"I still have to go, though. I don't care what happens to me."

"Are you an idiot!?" Tsugumi yelled at him. "It doesn't matter if YOU don't care! WE do! Gosh, you really ARE a stupid oaf…!"

They could see him smiling. "Don't worry, guys. I will definitely come back. Trust me."

"Shu…" When Ayase saw that smile and the determined look in his eyes, she couldn't help but see an image of him from 5 years ago which overlapped with his current appearance. It was just like the day he went out to save Inori. Like he was back to his old self again, which made her very happy. She had never thought she would see that part of him again.

The three friends could do nothing to convince the blind man to stay, so they had to watch him and Hare step forward towards the entrance of the main building on their own. They were already halfway there, when Yahiro cursed and ran up to them.

"Shu, wait. Take my void with you. If I can't come with you, then at least my void will. I can't send you off on your own, without any means of protection."

"But…"

"No buts." This time it was Ayase who had come after Yahiro. "You take mine as well. I insist." She told him that with a confident smile.

"Tch…you can have mine as well…" Even Tsugumi offered her void with folded arms, though clearly feeling uneasy about it.

"Guys…I can't…what if…" He tried to refuse with a worried expression, but Ayase wasn't having it. She grabbed his collar angrily and pulled him down to her level.

"What if _what_ , Shu? Didn't you just tell us you would definitely come back?"

"I-I did but…"

"I told you to keep your promises, so do it already, damnit!"

"Yeah, don't you DARE dying on us." The black haired hacker next to her agreed. "Especially for Aya-nee's sake. Your death would hit her the hardest. I will never forgive you if you do that to her!"

"Shut up, Tsugumi!" Shu could hear someone getting hit.

"Ouch! You are always like that, jeez…"

The blind man didn't really understand what was going on just now, but he couldn't help but smile because of them.

"Thank you. All of you. For entrusting me with your lives. I'll make sure to come back to return your voids afterwards."

As soon as he had said it, he unleashed his own void from his chest, engulfing the area in a bright light for a second, revealing the all too familiar silver threads which wrapped themselves around his fake arm again and created the crystal structure that was his void. The arm wasn't even fully revealed when it suddenly pointed towards the doors of the building all on its own as if it followed an instinct and moved on reflex alone. Several circles like the one which usually appeared at Shu's feet, whenever he used the power of kings, appeared in front of its fingers while overlapping each other.

"What the heck are you doing, Shu?" Yahiro demanded to know while Shu seemed to struggle to get his own void back into control.

"I am doing nothing, really! It's moving on its own. What's happening?"

"Hell, if we knew…" Tsugumi mumbled, eyes fixed on the countless seals and symbols that appeared in front of them.

It was Hare who somehow knew the answer to that mystery. "The void you used is opening a rift to the realm of the void. I was told voids would do something like this since it is in their nature to open a path for the king once he is at the right location." One would think that she would have at least expected something like this to happen after saying all that, yet the amazement her face showed off proved them all otherwise.

True enough, the strange symbols and seals seemed to align themselves into the right position like they were keys to unlock something. Once everything appeared to be in place, another light suddenly flashed and out of nowhere a small crack in the middle of the air appeared. It looked so unreal that they all couldn't believe their eyes at first. It was like some god had punched an invisible wall, which broke and revealed a hole that led to the other side of it. And not only that, the abnormal crack seemed to slowly pull everything closer like some kind of black hole, albeit being quite weak at that. It felt like wind more than anything else, really. It was at least as loud as an airplane while doing that, too.

"Wow…and I thought voids were crazy already…!" Yahiro yelled over the voice so everybody could hear him.

"The rift has appeared, Shu." Hare told him. "Go through it once you are ready."

Shu turned around to the friends as he was now in control of his void again. The awfully loud noise was very irritating when you relied on noises alone to navigate. Just another point in life he wished he could simply see what was in front of him, which would have made everything so much easier.

"Please let me have your voids then!" he yelled and took everyone's voids as they gathered around him, starting with Yahiro's and finishing with Tsugumi's. He made sure they were all stored safely in his own void before giving them a determined nod and turning around to the rift again. After taking one last breath, he stepped forward towards it.

"Be careful, Shu!" was the last thing he could hear his friends tell him, before he got too close and got sucked in. And with that, he was simply gone, as was everything else regarding a supernatural crack in reality.

"That thing sure disappeared as fast as it appeared." The lone remaining man in a group of girls grumbled. Tsugumi sighed next to him.

"And what do we do now?"

"We wait…nothing else we can do." Ayase responded and turned her attention towards Hare's image, which had remained here. "Didn't you have to follow him, Hare?"

She saw the ghost girl shaking her head. "I am already at the place he travels to. What you are talking to right now are just my thoughts which I sent through the rift. Nothing physical aside from the king can pass through it, but we managed to trick the system by sending out our thoughts instead, pretty amazing, right?" She folded her hands behind her back and smiled while still levitating in the air.

"So this is some kind of telepathy or something?" Tsugumi figured which granted her a nod from the girl.

"Hm, I guess it really is. It sure is hard to do it, though, especially if the persons you want to reach are so far away from the void. It also makes you very tired the longer you do it, which is why we took turns contacting you. Things would be so much easier if we had mobiles over there, but of course we don't." she explained with a sheepish smile.

"Well, that certainly explains why we saw more static from you guys than anything…we all came in contact with you far away from here, which is no surprise considering loop seven is big and off limits. It must have been hard."

"Oh, you have no idea…" Hare whined and suddenly looked very exhausted. "The headache is also always killing me afterwards, which reminds me…I am pretty much at my limit now…"

She had barely finished her sentence when her image suddenly started to flicker again, apparently becoming more and more unstable.

"I am sorry, but do you mind if I take my leave now? I will have to rest up a bit before Shu arrives as he certainly will need someone to explain certain thing to him."

They all nodded and waved her good bye, hoping that wasn't the last time they saw her.

The girl in question bowed to them. "Don't worry. Shu will succeed, since he is strong. When we will meet again, it will most likely be in person. I am looking forward to it. Until then, please take care."

With that said, she didn't waste another second and vanished immediately. Now the three of them truly were all by themselves with nothing else to do than to sit and wait, hoping for Shu's safe return.

They had no idea, though, what horrors would be waiting there for him once he arrived at his destination.


	5. Lessons learned

**5\. Lessons learned**

When Shu had stepped through the gate to the realm of the void, he had thought to be ready for everything.

He had been prepared to fight right away. He had also half expected that he would have to run away and hide upon his arrival in case he would face a threat which was too much for him to handle face on.

What he certainly DIDN'T expect, through, was the rollercoaster ride he was going through right now.

That's right. The moment he had stepped through that noisy rift, which was supposed to lead him to his friends, he had found himself to be floating in an empty space. And by floating he wasn't thinking about the peaceful kind of floating, no. The best way he could actually describe this, was being stuck in the middle of a whirlwind, tossed around like a mere toy by the forces of nature or whatever it actually was that caused the winds that whirled him around.

He had soon lost every kind of orientation he might have had at first. He couldn't tell where up or down was, nor if there actually were such things in the first place. It's not like he could see anything and all he was able to hear were the fierce winds that mercilessly kept pushing him around. He felt dizzy and sick when things finally started to become more peaceful and the winds eventually died down, leaving him floating in what he suspected was actually nowhere.

Still, he felt relieved to not be tossed around anymore, though there was also a strange feeling of drowsiness that crawled up on him as well as made him wary since it felt like it was forced upon him, rather than being natural. He had the feeling someone or something was forcefully putting him to sleep against his will and so he instinctively tried to fight it.

"W…what is happening…to me…?" he groaned while clinging to his consciousness like his life depended on it. After all, for all he knew it really could.

"Don't try to fight it, human. Just accept the gift of evolution that has been bestowed upon you." An unfamiliar voice entered his mind. He was sure the words were never picked up by his ears. They were just directly transferred into his head.

"Who's…this? What are you…talking…about…?" Were the questions the blind man wanted answers to. However, his eyelids grew heavier by every second that passed. He was afraid he wouldn't get the answers he sought before he would drift off into sleep and to his disappointment, he proved to be right.

"Sleep, human. When you wake again, you shall see the world with different eyes."

"Ugh…" With his last line of defense breached, he finally succumbed to slumber, not noticing how his body was getting shrouded in a big crystal cocoon in which he continued to sleep peacefully.

-GC-

He couldn't tell how much time has passed when he started to slowly come back to his senses. His limbs were still heavy, as were his eyelids, so he didn't bother opening them, knowing there was no point to it anyway. There were faint voices entering his mind directly again, although he couldn't make out what they were saying as they all talked at the same time and weren't really intended for him in the first place. At least that's what he figured after listening to them for a while.

Groaning in frustration since the voices wouldn't let him sleep anymore despite his tiredness, he decided to take another attempt at getting up. He figured he might as well start with opening his eyes since that was still the easiest thing to do.

There were several things that surprised him, though, once he actually managed to open them.

Firstly, the first thing he could see was Hare's smiling face.

Secondly, he could see. Now what the hell was up with that?

"Good morning, Shu." She greeted him happily while stroking his hair gently. The man realized he was lying on her lap, using it as some sort of pillow.

"Huh? Hare? I must be dreaming…" He managed to mumble confused.

"Nope, you have slept enough for now, Shu. How are you feeling?" She asked him, her kind words being only surpassed by the caring look in her eyes. It made him feel so sheltered and secure that he almost regretted getting up of her comfy lap and taking a sitting position next to her.

"I don't know…weird for the most part. After all, I can see again…and then there are these strange voices in my head. Am I losing it?" He asked her while letting his still heavy feeling head rest on his hand.

Hare simply shook her head. "No, Shu. That's completely normal. We all went through this when we came here. Try lifting your hand off that crystal. The voices should stop then."

It was only then that he realized that they sat on a huge crystal formation. He had first assumed it had been a rock due to its hardness, but it, in fact, really was a crystal branch that horizontally grew out of an even bigger crystal. When Shu realized that, he couldn't help but look around him, only to realize that the whole area was covered in these crystals. They differed in sizes and color, some being blue, others pink. The one they were sitting on was red. Some of them glowed faintly, others didn't. He couldn't help but find it quite beautiful. He also couldn't help but realize how his eyesight hasn't merely returned, it had even improved. He was amazed about the fact that he could almost endlessly stare into the distance and still make out details. It truly was fascinating.

He then remembered to do what Hare recommended him to do and lifted his right hand, he had used to support his tired body on, off the crystal. He was surprised that this simple act really made all voices in his head cease to exist.

"Wow, it really stopped."

"That's because you severed the connection with the crystal. We use them to talk to each other over long distances. Like telephones. When you touch a crystal and the person you want to talk to does, too, your thoughts will be sent to them through them. Once you get used to it, you can block out everything else but the voice you want to hear."

"Amazing...who would have thought that something like this could even be possible…!" Shu playfully kept touching the crystal followed by pulling away again, just to check if the voices would return and leave again, which they did. "Simply unbelievable." He told her with a smile, which immediately vanished into a shocked expression when he paid closer attention to his right arm. It wasn't robotic, nor was it his void. It was his own human arm, the one he had lost so many years ago.

"What is this…?" he mumbled in shock, lifting his arm and checking it from every angle, clearly taken aback by seeing it again which he previously thought he would never be able to do again. Not only had he lost it 5 years ago, he had also become blind at one point. Both of these hindrances had been magically removed for reasons he didn't know. And as much as it made him happy to be restored again…it also slightly worried him. After all, how could that have been possible?

"What is happening to me…?"

Hare just leaned back on both her arms and smiled at him. "You have evolved, Shu. At least that's what most of us call it. It seems about right to call it that, seeing how our senses have improved drastically and we have gained so many new abilities."

"Evolution…?" Shu asked in confusion. "When did I…?"

"When you entered the void. You fell asleep right away, right? What happens after that is that you get shrouded in a crystal cocoon in which your body starts to evolve. First your body gets restored and then it starts the actual evolution. That's what basically happened to you." She turned around to point towards a pile of what looked like a broken crystal. "See that thing over there? That was your cocoon. I was waiting for it to break open. Then I pulled you out and waited for you to awake." She explained to him calmly.

"Yeah…right…" He responded with an awkward smile. "You can be honest with me, I am still dreaming, right?"

This only made her sigh and lean forward towards him, which in return made him slightly back off.

"What are you doing…?" He saw her delicate hands coming close to his face. "Hare…?"

When she finally had his face in her hands, he couldn't help but gulp. Just what the hell was going on? Just when he started to think that things could go bad here, they really did…although in a slightly different way he might have imagined as she suddenly started to grin mischievously.

"Gotcha!" Before Shu even had the time to utter a sound of confusion, he could feel her pinching both his cheeks and pulling as hard as she could.

"Owww, what the hell, Hare!? Stop it! I get it, no dream, alright? Now stop!" he tried to tell her while sounding like a retard thanks to her. She, on the other side, seemed to enjoy herself as the sound of her laughter filled the area around them.

"Your face is hilarious, Shu!" She told him, still laughing. At least she finally let go of him after what had felt like forever.

"It hurts ridiculously, too, thanks to you…" he grumbled while rubbing his aching cheeks.

"Well, you asked for it."

He glared at her, but soon couldn't help but smile again. This whole scene was just like how it once used to be. A little talk between them with them messing around with each other…oh, how much he had missed that. It had always been times like these were he could feel at ease. Needless to say that he hadn't been able to regain this feeling for a very long time. Until now, at least.

"It has been quite a while, hasn't it?" he thought out aloud. She nodded at that.

"I believe you said 5 years have passed over there in the real world…it felt so much longer on this side." She told him.

"I know what you mean…"

"No, Shu. I mean it. Time has no meaning here. There are times when we feel like weeks have passed in here, but in reality, it had only been seconds. You never know with this place…"

The just-reborn man blinked at that, unable to grasp it immediately.

"So you mean to tell me you have been stuck here for longer than 5 years?"

"Honestly? I have no idea. There are no means to keep track of time here. There are no days, nor are there nights. Clocks are hard to come by, either, and even if there actually is someone with a void like that, it wouldn't work. At first we actually thought time would stay still, but when we noticed that we actually grew older, we knew that that wasn't quite the case. Not that our growth would go gradually, either. We often feel like years have passed, but our bodies would only appear to have aged a few months…of course, we can't actually tell for sure…we only guess. At least we never feel the other way around. Try imagining how much it would suck to age quite a few years in mere seconds. That would be horrible." She tried to explain. Shu only sat there, listening quietly.

"So basically it's like time is passing by in slow motion over here." He combined from her descriptions.

"Yes. You have slept in that cocoon for almost forever, but I am sure that if we checked the time in the real world, it would only have been one or two hours at most. That's how weird this place is."

"No kidding…" he told her while looking up to the sky. It appeared white and Shu had first thought it was just cloudy, but upon closer inspection he realized that there was no sky at all. No clouds, no sun, nothing. Just a white, empty space. "Where is the light coming from, anyway? I assume sleeping with all this brightness is rather difficult, no?"

She shook her head slowly. "We don't sleep, nor do we eat or drink. Keido said it could be because we aren't truly 'born' yet."

Shu needed a moment to process all this information into his brain. Difference in time, no sleep, no food, not being born, Keido…?

"Wait…by Keido you couldn't possibly mean Shuichiro Keido, do you?" he asked her in surprise.

"I do, why?"

Shu grinned once he heard her confirmation. "Now ain't that irony. The guy who wanted to end the world is stuck in his own mess. I find that to be truly hilarious."

She giggled and hit his shoulder playfully. "Aww, come on. Don't be mean. The poor man has no friends as it is already."

"That doesn't surprise me, really. He is one of the main reasons you guys appear to be stuck here, after all."

"Funny, since he actually blames you for that."

"Of course he would, but nevermind him for now. What did you mean when you said 'you weren't born'?" He tried get back to the main topic, which was understanding the situation so he could fix it eventually.

"Oh, right." She cleared her throat and tried to explain. "Well, it's not like I really understand it all myself, but according to Keido this world is meant to host us until we awake from our initial slumber. It provides us with everything we need to keep us alive until we finally make the journey back into reality." She told him that with a raised finger, probably feeling like some kind of teacher by doing so. Shu thought she might have even enjoyed the act.

"So that's why you don't need to sleep or eat."

"Yea, at least that's his theory." She replied with a shrug.

The man in front of her just shook his head disapprovingly. No, that's probably more than just a theory. With Keido being closely tied to Da'ath due to his plans of taking part in the apocalypse, he had most likely been part of its inner circle and might actually have known more about this situation than anyone of them presently did.

"I am sure that guy knows more about all this than me…" He was mumbling in annoyance but soon cut it out and turned his attention back towards his old friend to ask her the question he meant to ask since the very beginning. "Which reminds me…what is it that I need to do in order to free you all?"

When she heard that question, she immediately stared at him in disbelief.

"What…you don't know?"

That got him rather confused. He folded his arms in front of his chest and tilted his head in a questioning manner before replying with: "What do you mean, 'you don't know'…How SHOULD I have known? I had no idea this place even existed a day ago. I thought you had a plan or something, since you wanted me here…is that not the case?"

"It's because Keido told us that you were the only one who could save us. He said you were the key to free us all, but it would be impossible to reach you from in here. Since it didn't seem like a lie to us, we all did our best to find a way to prove him wrong. When we finally managed to contact you, we had thought the hardest part was done…" She told him with a worried expression. "But now that you don't seem to know what to do…could it be he tricked us to trap you here as well…?"

Shu gave her a reassuring smile and shook his head. "I doubt that. Da'ath wants me to be here as well and they wouldn't gain anything by trapping me here. They want me to free Mana, so I am sure there must be a way out of here. I just have to find it." He noticed her tensing up upon hearing the name of his sister. "What's wrong?"

"You came to release Mana…?!" she asked him in shock which made him glare at her angrily, slightly hurt because she would actually believe that for even a second.

"Are you serious? Who would even consider that? What Da'ath wants me to do and what I will ACTUALLY do are two different affairs."

A sigh of relief escaped her lips. "Thank goodness."

He calmed down as well, seeing as he cleared the misunderstanding quite easily. "You seem to be terrified of her…"

"And who would blame me for that? That girl is a freaking monster, Shu!"

"Well, she certainly has a few screws lose…"

"A few? More like she is completely nuts…our lives became hell ever since she appeared here, claiming to be the queen of us all." She explained him with a saddened expression.

Shu immediately frowned after he had heard the news. "She's the queen here?" That certainly couldn't be good. In fact, he would be highly surprised if it was just 'bad' instead of being 'the worst thing that could actually have happened here'.

"Hmpf, not that anyone of us had actually wanted her to be one…she just declared herself queen on her own." Hare answered while pouting.

"Well, you usually don't vote for a queen, you know." He told her while scratching the back of his head.

The girl in front of him just grabbed his shoulders with a serious look on her face. "That's beside the point, Shu! The point is that no one wants her to be queen. She's horrible!"

"So am I right to assume she's bossing you guys around?"

She let go of him again, shaking her head. "Not those who decided to follow Inori. The moment we found out she was as powerful as Mana, we immediately made her our queen instead. We didn't even need time to think who the better choice would have been."

Shu just looked at her, completely baffled. "So…wait a second. You mean to tell me Inori is your queen…?"

"Yes, and she is actually a good one at that. She is kind and cares about us, unlike Mana who uses her followers as tools of war."

"War…? How is that supposed to work in a place like this…? Is she throwing crystals at you or something?" He meant that as a joke, which was why he was completely taken aback when he saw her nod.

"As a queen she can control the growth of crystals, so naturally she uses them to harm us. As for everybody else…" She paused and put her right hand on her chest. The man in front of her looked like his eyes were about to pop out when he saw a glowing hole appear where her hand was. She reached into the hole and pulled out a long, slender void in the form of a bandage like it was the most trivial thing in the world to her. When she was done, she let the object float in the air next to her.

"…we use this." She finished her sentence while Shu looked at her in disbelief.

"Wha-…how did you…A VOID!?" It appeared like these were the best words his mind was able to form at the moment.

"Yeah. Ever since we evolved, we are able to release them ourselves. Everyone can only use their own void, though. Lending them to someone else isn't working."

"Still, this comes as quite a shock. So you use them to fight each other?"

"Well, I don't since mine isn't for fighting, but pretty much everybody else does."

Shu frowned as he imagined how a full scale war with voids could actually look like. It certainly had to be devastating.

"But why? What reason is there to fight?" he wanted to know.

"It's Mana. She freaking hates Inori and won't leave her alone. When Inori decided she would be our queen it was all the more reason for Mana to declare war on us. The area has been divided between her and Inori's territory ever since. See the ominous dark purple crystals in the distance? That's Mana's territory. The color fits her twisted personality quite well…"

Shu noticed her pointing at something far away and turned his head towards the same direction. Since they appeared to be on top of a large hill, they were able to take a good look at the surrounding area and, sure enough, there were quite a few of the crystals she had mentioned lined up like a border, separating the beautiful shining crystals from the dark ones. Mana's side certainly looked less than inviting.

"Doesn't seem like Mana to put a clear border instead of simply taking it all by force…" he thought out aloud.

"Oh she certainly tries, but we are all fighting back, you know. The battle hasn't progressed to anyone's favor ever since it has started. Sure, Mana managed to get closer to us every once in a while, but we pushed her back soon afterwards."

"Wait…the apocalypse virus is no more, meaning that there shouldn't be any new arrivals coming in. How come the battle could go on for so long, then? Surely the casualties must have been enormous...especially with voids being involved." Shu objected. Somehow this didn't make any sense.

Hare merely pointed to a field of crystals right next to them. There were quite a few of them in various colors and shapes, with none of them being too small or too big. The average height was actually close to that of a human, which Shu found to be odd. When he looked into other directions, he could clearly see that other crystal fields had crystals with various sizes, ranging from the size of footballs to the size of skyscrapers. What made the ones in front of him so different? Upon seeing the confused expression on his face, Hare gestured him to go forward.

"Why don't you try touching these, Shu?" She suggested. When he looked at her in confusion, she just smiled as if she was saying: "Go on, it's alright."

And so he did. She watched him as he walked up to the closest crystal and put his hand on it. He expected to hear voices again like with the crystals he had touched before, but was faced with something else instead. A weird feeling came over him as he felt a sudden impulse pass right through his hand, followed by his arm, then going down his body and leaving through his feet again. This happened more than once, always at the same intervals of mere seconds, until he finally let go of it again.

"What the…this feels like a heartbeat…" He stated in surprise while backing off slightly.

"Because that's what it is. These are all cocoons." She told him while pointing at all the crystals in front of them.

"But there are so many…where are all of them coming from?" Shu wondered.

"These are all the people who have fallen in battle. Their souls gather here, where they start to develop a new body inside the cocoons and eventually come back to life."

The brown haired man turned around to her, looking like he had misheard her just now. His bewilderment was clearly showing.

"You mean they are being REBORN here? But how?"

He saw her shrugging at that. "I honestly have no idea. It's just a fact we know. Just like how we know we don't need to sleep or eat. Getting reborn after death just adds to the list of weird things that come along when you start to live here."

"But…that's a good thing, right? After all, you get another chance at life, don't you?" Shu figured to which Hare only shook her head.

"You might think so the first few times it happens to you, but the more you die and come back to life here, the more you wish for it to finally stop. With the war going on and on and an end not being even close in sight, all what's left in life for us is to die in battle and get reborn only to die again. It is an endless cycle of death. Because my void isn't suited for combat, I never get stuck in the front lines, so I never died even once, but I heard from other people, that you still get to feel the horrible pain of dying every time. I have seen quite a few people who had wished they would just die for good, just to get it over with."

"That's horrible…" Shu managed to say after hearing her description of how life was here.

"I know…"

The man looked back at the crystal cocoons with a look of pity. That's when he noticed that some of them were glowing, while others weren't. Finding that somewhat suspicious, he went towards one of the not glowing ones and put a hand on it. He closed his eyes and waited for the heartbeat, only to realize that there wasn't any. Hare was quick to explain that, albeit with a very sad expression.

"That's a dead cocoon. Most of them have been around even longer than I have. They were alive at one point, but eventually grew weaker and died. We cut some of them open to try and figure out what may have been the cause for that. We only found corpses of half, developed bodies of people we have never seen before. We believe that they are the people who didn't survive to process of evolution. At least that would make sense since no one who survived the initial slumber ever had problems with reviving, despite some of them having died countless times already."

"Survival of the fittest, huh…" Shu mumbled after hearing her explanation. He looked down at the dead crystal cocoon, being lost in thoughts.

This whole evolution business those Da'ath lunatics kept talking about always sounded so good coming out of their mouths. Worldwide evolution, everyone getting stronger, faster, better…it all sounded fine and dandy, but they just either ignored the bad sides that came along with it or simply avoided to talk about them all together when spitting out their propaganda. The lifeless crystal formation in front of him, however, showed the truth. The truth that humans were still part of nature, even though they tended to exclude themselves from it due to their superiority in everything. Being a part of nature meant, of course, that nature's law of natural selection still applied to them, despite them not liking it. And that, in return, only meant that even if they kept talking about 'worldwide evolution', there never would be a guarantee every one of them would actually survive the process in the end.

Even if you assumed that only every seventh human wouldn't survive the change, it would still mean that about one billion people had to die, simply because someone thought it was about time for humanity to evolve. And, by looking at the sheer amount of dead cocoons around him, Shu knew that an assumption in which only every seventh human would die was rather unrealistic. For all he knew it could even be a fifty-fifty chance for someone to actually make it. He shuddered as he imagined just how many people would have to die then. Not that the people who actually HAD survived their evolution had it any better being stuck here…

He finally turned around to Hare again. "This has to stop." He was referring to this whole cycle of death business, of course. "And I will be the one to do it."

Hare just smiled for her part while folding her hands behind her back. "I have no doubt about that. For someone who prevented the apocalypse twice, this probably shouldn't be so hard, right?"

"Did you hear that when you tried to reach me in the outside world…?" He asked her with a chuckle. The brown haired girl shook her head, still smiling.

"Inori told us. She was the last to arrive, so she pretty much was the most up-to-date of all of us. We were all relieved when she told us that the apocalypse virus should be no more thanks to you, though I was actually more relieved about the fact you survived." She told him while hiding a small blush that appeared on her face.

"Heh, at least one of us was. I felt pretty guilty afterwards and knowing that I did nothing for 5 years while you all were stuck in this hell doesn't make me feel any better." He said honestly.

"No one blames you for that, Shu, so you shouldn't either." She said that with a stern voice, sounding like she scolded him. She quickly returned to her kind self, though. "Now cheer up, we are going back to the others. I bet you want to see them as badly as they want to see you, right?"

That, indeed, did lighten up his mood. The sole prospect of seeing everyone again was more than enough to distract him of his feelings of guilt.

"Alright, let's go." He tried to not sound too excited, but the look in his eyes gave it away, which made her giggle once she realized it.

"It's quite far, though. We will have to walk for a while."

The man frowned once he heard that.

"Seriously?" He was about to sigh in defeat, but suddenly got a better idea instead. "Why don't we just fly?"

"Huh?" She didn't even try to hide her confusion.

Shu didn't mind, though, as he simply released his void. He waited for it to materialize itself around his right hand before summoning Ayase's void which immediately appeared on his legs, making him float over the ground the moment it had appeared.

"Huh? Where did that void come from? Wait, isn't this Ayase's…?" He heard Hare wonder, but chose to rather lift her up bridal style, instead of answering her.

The girl was completely taken aback by this, blushing madly. "W-w-what? Shu, what are you doing? S-stop! Let me down!"

"Hang on tight." Was all he said before he suddenly took off in high speed, grinning from ear to ear.

"Shuuuuuuuuuuuuu!" The brown haired girl in his arms screamed as loud as she could, burying her face deep into his chest

Her fear was soon to fade, though, as Shu slowed down gradually once he thought they were high enough. They then proceeded to fly in an enjoyable pace which let the girl's curiosity get the better of her. Slowly, she lifted her head off his chest and tried to open her eyes. Only one at first, unsure if she actually wanted to take a look, but the small glance she got from that was already enough to make her open both of them wide right afterwards, smiling brightly.

"Wow!" was all she could describe the beautiful view with that happened to be in front of her. They both could see large fields of multi-colored crystals adorning the ground like some sort of carpet at their feet. The way most of them glowed would have certainly looked fabulous at night, if only there was something like that in this world. It was quite nice to look at it nonetheless, simply because it was something neither of them had seen before.

"I never knew this world could look good for a change. All you get to see from down there is an empty, white sky and that isn't really inspiring in any way." Hare told him, still smiling.

"Not all of it is looking great, though…" he stated and looked behind them, where the colorful crystals were cut off abruptly at one point, being replaced by creepy, dark purple ones. Everything beyond that point simply looked grim and deserted. If this world actually had clouds, Shu would expect that place to be shrouded by big, dark, gloomy ones…the kind which spew lightning and roared thunder…that's how dark and uninviting it looked to him.

"Come to think of it…I have never been able to take such a good look at Mana's fortress…" He had heard her mumble which only made him pay closer attention. Eventually he would spot a larger cluster of crystals somewhere in the center of the darker area. The crystals there were higher than any other one in the area and certainly looked like some sort of castle in which people lived in, seeing as some of them were hollow and thus may have offered shelter. That was about all his enhanced eyes were able to make out, though. It was too far away to actually see people and they were flying away from it, which only made it more and more difficult to detect more details with every passing second.

"Looks like something the final boss would wait in if this was a game…" he figured with a sigh.

"Yea, it certainly has that creepy vibe to it." Hare agreed while smiling sheepishly. "Not at all like our home. You have got to see it…it's so lovely."

"Which way is it?"

"Um…it should be over there…!" After confirming where exactly they were, she pointed towards a direction for Shu to head to. "It's a bit far away, but you can still kind of make it out from here."

There, indeed, was another big cluster in the direction she had pointed at. It kind of looked like Mana's palace, only less ominous. Again, it was too far away to spot important details, but he could still tell from afar that it actually was a place people, who were stuck in this world, would gladly gather at to make it their home. The tall formations could easily be spotted from the distance, serving as a landmark, while the faint light they were giving off would clearly act like some sort of beacon that could guide the lost back home as well as draw in new arrivals such as himself. It basically was like a huge sign which said: "Come, you are welcome here."

"It looks nice." Shu finally said with a smile.

"The people like it very much. It gives them the feeling of belonging somewhere…it also helps with finding the way back once you come back to life and can't figure out where you are."

The brown haired man couldn't help but grin. "Can't wait to see it up close. Hold on tight, I am going full speed now."

"A-alright." She managed to say with a nod, before clinging onto him. She just hoped he wouldn't realize how much she blushed for being so close to him. Plus, she was flying with him while being held bridal style, which felt like something ripped out straight from a movie. It was so embarrassing, but kind of made her happy at the same time.

The moment didn't last, though, as they were suddenly hit by some sort of energy beam before Shu was even able to commence his speed-flight. The attack happened faster than they could have blinked. One moment, there was nothing, the next one there was a gaping hole on Shu's right shoulder, blood pouring out as if it had only waited for its chance to taste freedom. The brown haired man's eyes widened in shock and confusion as he saw the red liquid come out of him. For a second he was asking himself if it really was his, obviously refusing to believe that he could actually be the source of it. Of course, that was before the burning sensation that was pain kicked in and thus clearly erased any doubts he might have previously had.

"Argh!" he winced in pain while getting a better hold of the girl in his arms, since he could already feel his right one protest. His shoulder hurt like hell and he assumed that whatever had hit him just now had gone right through it, damaging his shoulder blade in the process.

"Shu!" Hare for her part didn't hesitate to use her own void on him to heal his wound. It was a good thing that she had released it earlier and kept it close instead of putting it away again, as it proved to be very useful now. The bandage quickly wrapped itself around his shoulder and started to do its magic, while Shu himself was busy trying to get them to the ground safely.

The moment their feet touched the surface of this world, he dismissed Ayase's void and knelt on the ground with Hare still tending to his injury. They had landed on a small open area that was surrounded by tall crystals which provided them shelter. Whoever was out there shouldn't be able to see them through this dense field of crystals. There was also a hill in front of them, which they could use to take a quick look at their surroundings if they wanted.

"The hell just happened? One moment we were fine, the next one half my shoulder gets blown off." He asked her while bearing with the pain. She, however, was busy with healing him and thus ignored his question.

"Don't move until I am done!" She told him with a serious tone, clearly hiding her worries behind the façade of a professional medic. She must have done this quite a couple of times already. A few seconds of concentration later and the shoulder was as good as new, letting her sigh in relief. "Alright, all done."

"Woa…!" Shu moved his shoulder around to see how it was, clearly amazed by the fact that it had been restored in the blink of an eye. Granted, it still hurt a bit, but that was nothing compared to the initial pain he had gone through just now. "You really are amazing, Hare!"

"N-no, it was nothing, really…" Her attempts at waving it off were rather cute, especially since he noticed her cheeks turning slightly pink. That had happened a lot today. "But that's not important right now anyway! We have just been attacked!"

The man in front of her frowned, since he had realized that, too. "Yeah, but by whom? I saw no one."

"Probably a sniper…what's more alarming is that we were in our own territory. Does that mean the enemy is making a move again?" He saw her biting on her lower lip. This was certainly something that worried her pretty bad.

Not like he couldn't understand her. They had just been attacked in an area they had assumed to be safe, meaning that friendly territory just turned out to be not so friendly anymore. What made things worse was the fact that they had no idea where and how many enemies there were waiting for them. If the duo was lucky, it could have just been that one sniper, if not…let's just say thing could get really ugly. And Shu knew from experience that he seldom was to be considered lucky. That's why he preferred not to push his luck any more than he had to.

"Hare, we got to run and hide. Chances are that whoever attacked us saw where we landed and is headed this way. Who knows how many there are…" He told her rationally. She gave him an approving nod.

"You are right. Just give me a sec to let me warn everyone else via crystal-phone so they can prepare for the worst." Shu nodded and checked the surroundings while Hare ran up to the closest crystal to make a connection. She had barely made it to it, though, when Shu noticed someone move on the hill in front of them. What happened next was him moving solely on instinct, running up to Hare and tackling her down.

"Watch out!" His instincts proved to be right as another energy beam happened to be fired at her. He had managed to get her out of the firing line just in time, resulting in the shot to miss and hit the crystal instead, shattering it in the process.

"They are here already…?!" Shu saw the panic in the girl's eyes. Especially as she looked at the busted crystal which could have very well been her if Shu hadn't been fast enough.

That's when they noticed a lot of people emerging from behind the hill, voids drawn and ready to wreck havoc. A quick glance around them also revealed some more of them coming out from behind the larger crystals of the crystal fields of which Shu had previously thought that they would serve them as a good hiding place. Obviously he had been wrong on that. They were surrounded now.

"Tch…this is looking bad…" Shu tried to find an opening of some sort through which they could break through and run, but he couldn't find any. There were at least 30 of them and he spotted several long range voids amongst them.

"Now would you look at that…it appears you got yourself in some serious trouble, Hare." They heard a familiar voice coming from one of their attackers. A young man with dark brown hair and glasses emerged from the crowd in front of them. He was followed by another man with several ear piercings and long reddish brown hair which was bound together in various pigtails. He kept grinning mischievously as he approached them with his friend, both casually walking towards them with their hands in their pockets. They were also accompanied by two girls, one with short and slightly messy brown hair and another one with glasses and long black hair. The first had an evil smirk paved on her face, while the latter remained calm and serious. They all wore the all-too-familiar Tennouzu High uniform. On closer inspection, even the guys surrounding them actually did, but some of their clothes looked so worn out, torn and covered in blood stains that it had been almost impossible to tell before. Just how long have these guys been here? The fact that their clothes basically looked like trash while those of the four ex-students, who approached them now, didn't, clearly showed who of them actually did the dirty work and who merely gave the orders. The man from before continued to talk while readjusting his glasses with his index finger with a smirk.

"Good for you that we, your old friends, are here to help you out. All we ask for in return is that you show us a bit of…gratitude…afterwards, if you know what I mean." Truth to be told, Shu doubted that the man really needed the glasses with him probably having gone through the same process of evolution he had. The glasses must have been simply for style, he assumed.

Hare backed off slightly. "I'd sooner die!"

"Well, I am afraid that's going to happen if you plan to refuse…" He shrugged it off like it wouldn't make a difference to him at all. His ear pierced companion smirked.

"Yea, come on. Just be a good girl…we will be gentle…" while adding that, he took his right hand out of his pocket and attempted to grab Hare's hand. Shu interfered, however, and slapped it away forcefully.

"Hands off, scumbag!"

It was only now that the four people in front of them even acknowledged Shu's presence.

"What did ya just call me, fucker?" The redheaded man glared at him while seizing his collar. Shu remained unfazed by that and simply returned the glare. It was only then that the guy seemed to actually recognize him.

"Wait…that face…is that you, Ouma Shu!?" he let go of him in shock and started to laugh hysterically afterwards. "Hey, hey guys! Check it out! It's the void prince himself!"

The glasses wearing man also appeared to be highly amused. Shu recalled his name. It was Hirohide Nanba, a former A-rank student who had been in charge of his own small squad of higher ranked students. "Hoh? How interesting…"

"How did he end up here? Wasn't the apocalypse virus supposed to be gone?" The serious girl among them seemed to wonder…Shu remembered her name to be Herikawa Miyabi. The more easygoing girl next to her merely shrugged. If memories served him right, her name was Takarata Ritsu. Both of them had originally served under Nanba.

"Heh, that's only what that Inori bitch said. Bet she was lying to make everybody feel better." Shu narrowed his eyes on her, but didn't let himself get provoked by that.

"Whatever the reason is, we should bring him to Mana. If it's her, she may be able to force him to be our ally. You all know she has a few ways to do that…" Miyabi stated rationally. There was a time where she had admired Shu for being their leader. Apparently that time was over now.

"I don't think that's going to work, Miyabi." Nanba replied with a mere shrug. "Ouma is too stubborn to ever bend to Mana's threats, won't you agree? All we would achieve by that is wasting her and our time."

"So that means we get to have fun with him, right?" The other man, Takaomi Sudou, replied with a smirk, lifting his right hand to his chest to release his void. What appeared was some sort of ring on which two balls were attached by a string. The ex-student wore the ring on his finger while playing around with the balls, letting small sparks come out of them. That strange thing appeared to be charged with electricity. Getting too close would surely hurt pretty badly.

Nanba just chuckled at that. "Try to not harm the girl too much, Sudou. It would be such a waste, really."

"You guys haven't changed at all…you still are the same despicable delinquents you were back then…" Shu said while readying himself should that brute with the void really attempt to harm them.

Nanba merely smirked at that. "Don't judge us, Shu. The world we live in has changed…we just adapted to it. This is a dog eat dog world now and that means only the strongest survive."

"Yet you only survive because you hide behind the strength of someone else, like you always did. You just switched from hiding behind my back to hiding behind Mana's. There is nothing strong about you. If anything, it's pathetic. After all, you just pick the sides you get the most out of."

"And what is wrong with that?" Nanba answered in a rather bored manner. "Back in loop seven I got to boss people around while working under you…when I saw your ship sink, I merely jumped to the next one. That led me to this place where I can continue to boss people around. Works fine with me. All that's changed is my boss' name…why should I care about such a little detail?"

"That's exactly why Inori didn't want you guys in our group!" Hare suddenly yelled at him. "Loyalty means nothing to you so you can't be trusted. She was right to cast you out!" Shu raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't say anything.

It was Sudou who took the opportunity to speak again while still playing around with his void. "Like we give a damn about that, anymore. Being on her side was no fun anyways. Mana is a bitch, but at least she lets us do our job the way we want it. She doesn't care as long as the enemy is dead in the end."

"You guys are horrible!" Hare's evil glare was met with a smirk from the rest.

"Oh, are we?" Ritsu grinned. "I don't see how we are doing things different from how we used to, back when we still were in loop seven and working under your buddy over there. Not that you would know since you were already dead at that point."

That caught Hare off-guard. Just what the hell was that girl talking about?

"What? You didn't know? That guy always sent us on missions to collect resources. Back then it was 'collect those crates of vaccine by any means possible.', which, of course, also included the use of force. I don't see how this is any different from our new orders to get Mana Inori's head." She told her with a shrug.

When Shu saw Hare's look of doubt, he couldn't help but tell her the truth. He wouldn't deny his own sins.

"She's telling the truth. We needed those vaccines to survive and I didn't want to see anybody else die. Not after I had lost you." When she had heard that, Hare was just shaking her head disappointedly, unable to believe what he had just told her.

"But…you were supposed to be a kind king…"

Contrary to Hare's disappointment, Ritsu only got more ecstatic from his confession. "See? See?! He's the same as Mana. A ruthless tyrant!"

Shu only growled at that. "How dare you! It was to ensure YOUR survival!"

"And this isn't?" It was Miyabi who butted in. "We fight to survive."

"The difference between me and Mana is quite clear. The survival of as many students as possible and the escape of loop seven were my priority, where Mana's priorities simply lie with the elimination of a single girl. What for? What could she possibly gain by that?"

"Isn't that clear? She will become the only queen and rule over the void." Sutou explained with a grin.

"Are you an idiot?" Shu only looked at him like he had said the most stupid thing in the world and who knows, maybe he even did. "Mind telling me how many times you have already died?"

"Only two or three times. I am pretty tough, you know…"

"So how come you are still standing here…?"

"Well duh…I revived." Sotou obviously wasn't catching on. It didn't matter, though, since Nanba very well did. At least that's what his frown and his folded arms in front of his chest indicated.

"So you are saying Inori will just revive, too?"

"Have you proof she won't? Let's say you actually manage to win the war…how much time of peace do you think you will gain by that? Enough to justify 5 years of endless battle?"

That made everyone around them share an meaningful look with each other. Not only Nanba and his gang were looking grim, but every one of his goons, that kept surrounding them, as well. They obviously couldn't deny that Shu had a point.

"That would make this an endless battle, but so what? It's not like we have a choice here, do we? If we stop fighting, we will die. If we kill Inori, the battle may not end, but at least we live for a while longer." Nanba replied in a matter- of- fact manner.

"I guess leaving this place never occurred to you?"

It was Sutou who couldn't help but laugh at that. "Impossible. No one escapes the void."

Ritsu seemed to disapprove of this statement. "Well, I heard rumors that it actually is possible…" She said while scratching her head awkwardly. "I mean…isn't Mana going on and on about how she would be able to leave this world if that strange 'king' of hers was here?"

"Oh, come on. Give me a break. I thought we all agreed on the fact that the girl is mad." Sutou growled in annoyance.

"She IS mad, but that doesn't mean that everything she says is wrong…"

"It's true!" Hare said. "Keido said so, too! He said if Shu were here we could leave."

Nanba raised an eyebrow at that. "Shu's supposed to be the king?" Both Hare and Shu himself nodded at that.

"Why didn't you say so from the start?" Nanba asked in an annoyed way while readjusting his glasses. "We will lead the way to Mana, then. Follow us." He turned around and planned to leave, but was stopped by Sutou.

"The hell, Nanba? Do you actually believe that crap?"

The glasses wearing man leaned closer to his best friend and whispered so only he could hear: "Of course not, but what's the harm in us trying anyway? If it turns out that he is the key to free us all, then so be it. We can still kill him if he turns out to be useless."

Sutou smirked at that. "I like your style, man." Nanba simply chuckled at that.

Shu, however, remained where he was. "Hold it right there, Nanba."

"What is it, void prince?"

"I have no intentions to help Mana escape this place…" The king said with a look cold as ice. "…and same goes for you all, in fact."

"Excuse me?" This caught all of them off-guard, especially Nanba who thought he had just misheard him.

"You heard me. I am leaving this place with my friends. You guys can stay here for all I care."

That got them all rather angry. Ritsu was the first to show off her disapproval by yelling: "Are you saying you are leaving us behind? What kind of king are YOU supposed to be?"

"Obviously not yours, as you have clearly shown me 5 years ago when you pointed your guns at me." Was Shu's answer as he narrowed his eyes.

Sutou tried to give him an apologizing smile while scratching the back of his head nervously. "Yea, that was kind of harsh from us…look we are really sorry…"

"'Sorry' just ain't gonna cut it!" They all backed off a bit when he suddenly yelled at them with clenched fists. He looked down and took a deep breath after his sudden outburst before his voice returned to its calm self.

"It was because of your betrayal that I lost my powers…without my powers I couldn't protect us from GHQ, which led to Inori's capture and thus to her death. You can't imagine how I have felt the last couple of years because of that. The guilt, the regret…do you guys even realize that me and my friends could have actually escaped loop seven on our own somehow? There were so many ways a small group of 8 people could have gotten out without much trouble. Yet I stayed anyway and tried my best to get us all out…and when I finally managed to get it done, what do I get? Guns pointed at me, a severed arm and being left for dead. Right afterwards, when I had still somehow managed the save the world somehow, I still get nothing but complaints from the survivors of that day. At first, it kind of pissed me off pretty bad. But eventually I started to realize, that I had no right to feel that way."

Everybody just looked at him in confusion. What the hell was he talking about? He gave them a small laugh and continued his speech.

"Yeah, you guys had every right to dethrone me, after all, I never was cut out to be a leader in the first place. It was my fault from the beginning to even try to be one. I should have never bothered with you guys and simply left. The losses that I had that day were the price I had to pay for my foolishness. But I've learned my lesson and won't make the same mistakes twice."

Sutou obviously didn't like what he was hearing. That's why he didn't hesitate to yell at him. "What the hell? Don't fuck with us! You just made it sound like it was your fault while you still actually blame us!"

Shu just gave him a fake smile in return. "Oh, I guess it can't be helped if it sounded that way to you. However, that still doesn't change the fact that I no longer am your leader and thus am under no obligations to save even one of you. You chose Arisa Kuhouin over me and I will have to respect that decision. I suggest you wait for her to actually come and bust you all out."

"Seriously? You jackass would leave us here because you are still mad at us?"

"I am not mad at anyone…I am simply done with it. Done with you all and done with trying to be someone else. Because I finally realized that the reason I failed so much in the past was because I tried to be someone who wasn't me. I played the role of a terrorist, a kind leader, a tyrant, a savior…never did I try to be myself. Today I will just be myself. I will start by doing what I want, not what everybody else wants me to do. And let me tell you that I certainly have no desire to put up with you guys again, so do me a favor and deal with your problems yourself, will you?"

"Ridiculous! How do you expect us to do it on our own?!" Nanba objected fiercely.

"So you expect me to do everything for you guys again so you can ditch me in the end? I think not. You said it yourself, didn't you? This is a dog eat dog world…in other words: Everyone for himself, right?"

Nanba glared at him and growled, but relaxed with a sigh soon afterwards. "Fine, I get it. This is payback for you since we screwed you over, right? Look, we all learned our lessons from that. No more betrayals. We will do everything you want us to do, so just lead us again, okay?"

Shu only chuckled and slowly shook his head after he heard that. "You said you learnt your lessons, but you are just doing it again. You just stated that you would willingly betray Mana because I offered you more than she could give you. You still know nothing about loyalty. Sorry, Nanba, but the train's already departed without you."

Shu knew it was a bit harsh of him to deny them his help, but what choice was there? He knew for a fact that these people couldn't be trusted and he would not take people with him he didn't trust, for it would only lead to trouble eventually. He was no naïve high school boy anymore and had learned from his past mistakes. Trust was something that had to be earned and if you managed to lose one's trust, it only meant that you were on your own from that moment onwards. Of course, he could be kind and forgive them, but that way they would never learn that valuable lesson in life, so he simply wouldn't. His old tyrant days may have shown him that pure ruthlessness brought him nowhere, but on the other hand that also meant that showing kindness all the time didn't either.

"You bastard!" Sutou suddenly lunged forward with his void ready for action. Shu only narrowed his eyes while lifting his right hand and pointing it towards him. What happened next was that the void Sutou wore on his finger suddenly dissolved into silver threats which all happened to be driven towards the king's void where they recreated the object almost immediately. The ex-student's eyes widened in shock once he realized he had just been disarmed.

"What the…?!"

"Please refrain from swinging that thing around too much. Someone might get seriously hurt, you know. Like this, for example." Shu told him with a serious look and used the new void in his hand to strike his opponent down. Maybe the brute would learn a lesson or two by getting a taste of his own medicine.

"Grargh!" The rest of Nanba's gang watched in shock as their friend got knocked out by the stolen void. He flew a few meters through the air because of the force from the impact and smashed against a nearby crystal. When he finally fell to the ground, he just remained there, not moving a muscle. Well, aside from the few spasm his muscles went through because of the high voltage they were faced with only moments prior.

Shu on the other hand just looked at the void he had snatched from his victim. His eyes full of pity while doing so. His void let him assume everything, so he didn't get around taking a little peek into other people's hearts whenever he stored their voids in it. He was able to see their strengths and weaknesses, their inner beauty and ugliness. Of course hearts were never meant to be flawless…every human being held a bit of darkness in them, no matter how pure they may appear on the outside…but the void he was holding now…it was just sad. There was no light left in it. No hopes and no dreams could be found there, no matter how hard he looked. All he could see was hatred and loneliness. The man Shu had just knocked out had no one he could truly look up to as a friend, because he trusted no one but himself. There was not a single person in his heart he held dear. Shu was surprised to learn that the man had fallen so deep into the abyss of darkness that he didn't even feel guilt anymore…not for the things he had done, nor for the things he planned to do in the future. It was as if his heart had died long ago and was slowly rotting from within. And this was just what he saw from a single void he had taken.

Looking up to the rest of them, he couldn't help but wonder. Were all of them already beyond the point of attaining salvation? Were they all already dead inside? He couldn't imagine how horrible a fate that could have been. It made him feel bad for them, knowing that they all had been innocent at one point but decided to take a wrong path where they somehow managed to get themselves lost along the way.

"What are you standing around for? Seize him!" Nanba spat his orders to his goons viciously. He obviously wasn't going to let his ticket into freedom walk away without a fight. Too bad for him, though, that it was to no avail as Shu merely raised his arm into the air and started to absorb all their voids, including those of Nanba and his companions which weren't even drawn at that point. One after another, the voids were absorbed into his own, alongside the strengths and the weaknesses that came with them. Shu frowned when he realized that he had been right. All these voids were products of negative emotions. Hatred, jealousy, loneliness, inferiority complexes,…he barely could make out anything good in them. It started to slowly cloud his mind, as all the darkness that flew into him triggered his own darkness to reawaken. Negative emotions of long ago that he had kept locked away suddenly resurfaced and reminded him of all the bad he had previously tried to forget.

The guilt of killing Yahiro's brother, the sadness and anger he had felt at Hare's death, the loneliness that came after Inori's sacrifice, but most of all the hatred he had always had within him, yet had never allowed to show itself. Hatred towards GHQ for killing innocent people, towards the people who kept harassing him after his victory against Gai and of course also towards the Tennouzu High students who had turned their backs on him.

He had always understood why they had done it. He had been harsh to them and they all had stood under high pressure because of the red line that had approached them every day. It wasn't exactly forgivable, but he had decided to move on and forget it. It had been the past and couldn't be changed. With that he had managed to lock up his hatred that had built up inside him before it could have surfaced. And he had been very proud of himself for achieving that.

But now that the ex-students' darkness had awakened his own, he remembered everything he had thought he had managed to forget. How betrayed he had felt and how unforgiveable their deeds had appeared to him after having worked so hard for them. Suddenly, all his reasoning felt like it was getting blown away. It was just like the day he had lost Hare and had failed to control his own emotions for the first time…when all he had thought of was seeking revenge. Though this time, it was far worse, for his own darkness was multiplied by the darkness of every heart he had absorbed…and without something to help him overcoming the sheer amount of negativity that tried to engulf him, he could do nothing but to give in and embrace it.

"So this is what has become of you guys…" He mumbled to himself. The look on his face had grown awfully cold and even the air around him changed as if he was suddenly engulfed in a dark aura. He looked a lot like he had in his tyrant days…completely stoic with his eyes emitting such an aura of superiority that even a pack of wolves would have thought twice about foolishly baring their fangs at him. "What a fitting fate for a bunch of cowardly traitors…"

Next to him, Hare appeared to be shocked because of his sudden change. It seemed like his personality had just made a 180° turn. "Shu…?"

"Stay behind me, Hare…this won't take long." Was all he said without turning around to her.

"How could you do that! This is completely impossible!" Nanba demanded to know, referring to Shu's ability to absorb voids.

"My void can assume everything, so I assumed all of your voids. They are mine now and I can do whatever I want with them." He answered calmly.

"You must be kidding!" Ritsu mumbled in shock while slightly backing off in fear. She must have realized that their lives were pretty much in his hands now.

"I am not, but there is no need to fear. I am well aware of the fact that I could simply take advantage of this situation by threatening you all with the destruction of your voids to force you into submission, but that would be something lowly which only guys like YOU are capable of. Besides…like I said before, I have no intentions of being your leader once again. Rather than that, I plan to show you the ugliness of your own hearts." He had pulled back the sleeve of his coat on his right arm while telling them that, resulting in his void to start glowing once again and releasing all the voids he had gathered just now.

One by one, they flew to an empty space near Shu and the rest and started to fuse together, first creating some sort of foundation, then starting to slowly build it up in height. It took quite some time until the creation was finished, but in the end they all looked up at a black and grey tower that was several meters tall. It was covered in ominous things like heavy looking chains and razor sharp spikes which gave them all goose bumps, but that wasn't all. What really caught their attention was the huge ball of energy that gathered at the top of it. It was of a reddish color similar to blood and emitting a lot of dangerous looking sparks of the same color. It seemed like it grew bigger by every second it floated up there, too,…as if gathering more and more energy.

"This is what your hearts look like deep down. All your voids combined into one." Shu said while pointing at the sinister looking tower. The ex-students couldn't help but be shocked at its appearance.

"No way!"

"This is supposed to be us?"

"Why does it look that way?"

"It's creepy!"

The brown haired king could hear all sorts of voices. They were filled with disapproval, fear and confusion. Apparently they did not understand how something like that could possibly have its origin in them, so he decided to tell them while keeping his calm and collected attitude.

"This void, built by all of your voids together, stands for only one thing: Destruction. Its sole purpose is to annihilate everything you guys feel hatred and anger towards. Be it each other for petty reasons such as jealously over the difference in strength of you voids…"

The mass of energy at the top appeared to have gathered enough energy as it sent out powerful energy beams into every direction at random. A fact the ex-students didn't fail to notice. As soon as they looked up with worried expressions, they saw the first of the beams hit one of them, followed by another. All the poor guys could do was to scream in pain while their bodies slowly perished in the dark red lights. As they died, they turned to crystals which scattered in the air. Nothing was left of them afterwards.

"…or this world for imprisoning you here with someone as crazy as Mana." Shu continued his explanation, not even the slightest change in his expression after the first people had died. He had barely finished talking when another beam of energy hit the base of an enormous crystal, resulting into its collapse which buried a whole lot of Mana's soldiers under it. It was needless to say that they all panicked after that and tried to run away while the tower continued to kill and destroy. Shu merely watched their hopeless attempt with indifference.

"In the end, though, it won't really matter, for it will eventually destroy itself, too." He took a glimpse at the crumbling tower, which's own destruction came as no surprise. In the end, it was a powerful void combined of many small ones. Since it slowly killed off all the original possessors of the voids it was made of, it was only natural that it would also destroy the voids and thus itself. After all, if you took a card off a card house it, too, would collapse. Same went for the void Shu had created. He simply watched it fall apart, shattering into uncountable shards once it hit the hard ground. There was no need for him to turn around to the sudden cries and screams of the ex-students who had tried to run away, since he already knew they were all dying due to their voids destruction.

The only one left was actually Nanba. He seemed confused about that himself, but used the opportunity to back off of Shu. Unfortunately, he tripped and fell, which made him crawl instead. It was a very pitiful sight to behold.

"Where do you think you are going, Nanba?" was all Shu said while slowly approaching him with an evil glare.

"Stay away from me, you monster!" Was what the glasses-wearing man said while looking absolutely terrified. His whole team had been annihilated in a couple of minutes by one man, so he had every right to feel that way.

"Can you really call me that when all I did was showing them their combined voids? I didn't even control it…it did everything by itself. They were destroyed by their own ugliness."

"I didn't get destroyed!"

"That's right. I haven't included your void in all this." Shu said that and let Nanba's void appear in his hand. It was some sort of glove which was able to create Wolverine-like claws which were formed simply by energy. The king held it in his right hand as if it was merely a toy to him. "I wanted you to witness all this to the end and then finish you off personally, because, to tell you the truth, I really despised you from the moment I first met you." Shu had finally stopped in front of him, looking down on him with eyes full of contempt while continuing to talk.

"You were nothing but trouble from the very beginning. You forced Arisa to step down as the president while probably planning to take the spot for yourself. You also harassed Ayase and Tsugumi in front of dozens of people like a barbarian, trying to gain popularity by branding them as Funeral Parlor members and selling them out to GHQ. It wouldn't have mattered that the trade wouldn't have worked since the students would have seen that you were at least doing something, unlike Arisa. They would have appointed you the next president immediately and I shudder when I have to imagine to what THAT might have led."

Nanba growled at him. "So what? It couldn't possibly have been worse than letting Arisa continue her pointless waiting game. She was weak and I saw the chance to take charge. I surely couldn't have been the only one!"

"You are right, you probably weren't. Still, I strongly believe that every one of us would have died under your leadership. Because all you care for is yourself and no one else."

Nanba merely chuckled at that. "Like it even matters anymore. Most of us died anyway. At least I would have been able to have some fun for myself before that."

Shu grabbed him by his throat and lifted him up high enough that his feet weren't able to touch the ground anymore. Nanba struggled but couldn't free himself from the unwavering grip of Shu's left hand.

"You _disgust_ me." Was what he told him with a hateful expression.

"C-come on now, Shu. You know I can be useful. I will do anything you want me to…like before. Think about it." Nanba managed to say while gasping. He tried to give the man who held him his typical smirk, but under these circumstances it only looked like a pleading smile.

To his surprise, Shu really appeared to be thinking about it. At least that's what the narrowed eyes of his indicated.

"You know…maybe you are right…there really is one thing I would like you to do."

Shu's words apparently let the glimmer of hope return in the eyes of his victim. With an enthusiastic voice and a smirk he answered: "Anything. Just tell me what it is!"

The king's face formed into a devilish smirk upon hearing that. "Then, Nanba…won't you die for me?"

"W-what…?" The glasses wearing man watched in horror as Shu summoned Yahiro's void in his right hand and pointed it towards him.

Shu repeated with a fake smile: "Please die!"

"Hiiiiiii!" Nanba cried, completely terrified as Shu's weapon drew closer. However, before the tip of Yahiro's shears could as much as graze him, Hare called out to Shu, causing him to stop and turn his head sideways so she would know she had his attention.

"Is something the matter?" he asked her.

"I am the last person in this world who would want to see this person get away with his life, but I cannot help but wonder if killing him is what you truly want." She said while walking up to him. Shu only gave her a smile.

"What are you talking about? I can't come up with a reason NOT to do it."

"Really? Because I have known you for so long and even though we were separated for 5 years now, I still believe that you would regret killing him in the end. Maybe not immediately, but with time you certainly will."

"What makes you so sure of that?"

"Because you are kind, Shu. No matter how angry you may get…it will never truly overcome your kindness. He may deserve death, but you will still feel pity for him after killing him…that's just who you are, Shu. And that's okay, really. I like that about you and I am sure everybody else who knows you, does too." She told him with a smile. She had reached him and put a hand on his shoulder in a comforting manner like she was telling him that it was enough already. That he could quit now.

The brown haired king looked at her, then back at his victim. He felt hatred and anger when he looked at the man he held in his grip, but also realized how Nanba's pleading eyes managed to make him feel sorry for him. A sight that would clearly stay in his mind forever should he decide to end that man's life this instant. Hare was right. He could kill him, but the guilt of doing so would surely haunt him for all eternity, especially since he couldn't even claim that he didn't have a choice…unlike the time he had killed jun. There was a difference between killing to protect or killing to satisfy one's anger. He had never been one to seek revenge, why should he start now?

The darkness of the ex-student's hearts had left him as soon as their voids had shattered, so all that was left was to overcome his own dark emotions that were set free by them. By remembering who he truly was, he managed to put those evil thoughts back whence they came and regained his clear head once again. He sighed deeply with closed eyes and when he opened them again, he was his usual self again, much to his and Hare's relief.

"Just what the hell have I been doing…" he said and threw Nanba to the ground where said man was busy gasping for air for a while. "I didn't mean to go this far…"

"I know." Hare gave him a comforting smile before looking slightly saddened. "It can't be helped. Every one of us gets overwhelmed by their emotions sometimes. After all, we are still human…evolution or not. And you had it especially hard since you assumed all their negative emotions, didn't you?"

"I thought I could handle it…but their negativity…it was too much. There was nothing to balance it out. It was like I was suddenly swallowed by a tsunami of darkness." He explained while shaking his head. " I am sorry you had to see that, Hare."

The girl next to him smiled bitterly. "The sad truth is: I am used to it. I am afraid I have seen so many people die already, that it has simply stopped affecting me anymore…especially if they are Mana's soldiers. You haven't seen what those guys DID to us in the past…they HAD to be stopped, so don't feel bad for killing them, Shu. Besides…they will revive soon anyway…" Shu was a bit taken aback because he had never expected someone like Hare to take people's deaths so casually. Was that the result of living in a strange place like this, which revolved around death? Just what had this world done to his sweet and innocent childhood friend?

"Just how bad is this world…?" he thought out aloud while making a frown.

"You haven't even seen half of it…" She answered while looking down in sadness. "We all can't wait to leave this place, Shu."

The brown haired king gave her a determined nod. "Then let's go. The sooner I meet everyone and find a way out, the better it will be."

"Right!" That had cheered her up somehow which resulted in her giving him her brightest smile again. He was glad that she had returned to her optimistic self and hoped that she would stay that way for at least a while.

However, it turned out his wish was too optimistic itself, because Nanba was slowly getting up behind them. Silently, he got a grip on a very sharp-looking crystal shard he found on the ground and began walking towards the two friends whilst their backs were still turned at him. The malice in his eyes could have easily been seen from afar if it hadn't been for him readjusting his glasses and thus hiding them behind the ominous glow of their reflection. He maintained a serious expression even when he finally came in range and started to carefully raise his hand which held the "weapon" he meant to stab Shu with. It was almost like he was a professional assassin.

With an emphasis on "almost" because right at the crucial moment, he couldn't help but shout: "Die!"

That, of course, alarmed Shu. He quickly turned around while swinging Yahiro's void in the same motion. The razor-sharp shears worked like a knife as they went through Nanba's flesh, muscles and bones almost effortlessly. Nanba's eyes widened as he saw his chopped-off hand drop to the ground where it immediately got covered by the blood that poured out of his fresh wound. He attempted to cover it up somehow with his remaining hand while crying in pain, but it was no use.

"Oh god! My hand! My fucking hand!" Both he and Shu looked in horror at the puddle of blood that started to appear at their feet. The fist because he couldn't believe he just lost a hand, while the latter was simply shocked at what he had done. He had merely acted on instinct…sensing the danger and then trying to avoid it…it had happened so fast. These quick reflexes had come in handy back in the days when he had still been blind…well, he figured they still came in handy even now when he wasn't blind anymore.

"Well, I suppose you are a lefty now." Was all he said while he scratched the back of his head and laughing awkwardly. "Can't say you didn't have it coming to you, though."

"I will fucking kill you, asshole!"

Shu couldn't help but utter a frustrated sigh at that. "You DO realize I am still holding your void, right? Besides…you ain't going to kill anyone with that wound. You better treat that before you fall unconscious from blood loss."

"What, so you are giving me survival tips now, after chopping off my hand?" Shu heard him grumble angrily while he was falling on his knees, cursing. "Fuck…this hurts. How could you even survive that back then, Shu?" He took off his black coat from his school uniform and wrapped it around his stump to slow down the bleeding. That was probably the best he could do considering the circumstances.

"I had help." Was the king's short reply. He took a quick glance at Hare, saw her disapproving shake of the head, and returned his attention to the injured man in front of him. "Seems like you aren't that lucky. Too bad." He then turned around and started leaving, while gesturing for Hare to follow him to which she gladly complied.

"So that's it? You are leaving me? Just like that?"

"Yep." Shu answered without stopping or turning around.

"Please! Talk to Hare! She would heal me if you asked her to, I am sure of it!"

"I won't ask her to do something she doesn't want to do. Besides, I hate you…that wasn't a lie back then. So you are on your own from here."

"You cruel bastard! At least finish the job and kill me then!" He yelled now, since Shu and Hare were almost out of talking reach.

"I am not doing you the favor of putting you out of your misery. If you are so keen on it, do it yourself. Here, have your void back." The king lifted his right arm and summoned Nanba's void, only to send it back from where it originally came from.

"Damnit! I won't forget this! Come back here, SHUUUUUUUU!"

The cry echoed around them for a while before fading into nothingness eventually. That was the last both of them heard from Nanba. It was quiet afterwards, with no one of them talking for a while. They continued to do this for what felt like several minutes until Hare broke the silence.

"Are you okay with that, Shu? I mean leaving him like this."

"I am. You were right when you said I would regret killing him, but that doesn't mean I would be fine with saving him either. He simply doesn't deserve it. It is his problem, so he gets to fix it himself." Shu answered her seriously. "What about you? Are YOU fine with it? He might die, you know?"

She suddenly looked away as if she were ashamed of herself. "I don't want to sound cruel, but he is a horrible man on top of being the enemy so I even HOPE he dies. If it stops him from harming us for only a few hours before he revives, then it's already worth it. I didn't stop you from killing him for his sake, but yours. Truth to be told, if I had a void capable of killing, I would have actually done it myself. Probably."

"You would even go that far?"

"Mana's people are all horrible. All they do is rape and kill. They force everyone on their side to fight in the war, no matter if their void isn't suited for combat, and don't spare anyone's life. Not even if it was a kid's. You kind of lose your sympathy for them if you see them do stuff like that all the time." She tried to justify her opinion. Shu just nodded in response.

It was shocking to see Hare being fine with murder when he still remembered her to be the girl who wouldn't even kill a spider because she thought life was too valuable to take it away. Yet, it wasn't very surprising that a change such as this had occurred.

After all, it was quite clear that this wasn't "Hare the student" anymore, but "Hare the soldier". Where the old Hare's biggest problems may have been things like upcoming math exams or to maintain her figure, new Hare's problems consisted of surviving and making sure her friends survived, as well. She basically still was the same person…but the circumstances in this world had forced her to change ever so slightly.

It was understandable, even very much so, but Shu still felt very saddened by his friend's change. He wanted her to be her usual self, who wouldn't hurt anyone and always was cheerful and kind. The king hoped from the bottom of his heart that she would revert to her old self once this mess was finally dealt with. He would hate it if even the slightest bit of the old Hare he knew were to be lost forever. The mere thought of that possibility made him want to hurry and get her out of here as soon as possible.

That's why he wasted no second to ask: "Do you think it is safe enough to fly again?"

The girl next to him seemed to consider the possibility of another attack. "It should be. Attacks on friendly territory are rare, unless there is a full scale battle going on. We probably were just unlucky enough to run into a group of scouts checking the area. Mana must be planning another attack soon or she wouldn't send troops over the border. At least that's what I think."

"So it should be fine, right? Great. Let's go then." Was all he said before he quickly summoned Ayase's void again. He then offered his friend a hand while smiling at her. "Ready to fly with Ouma Airlines once again?"

She gave him a big grin and took his hand. "You bet!"

The next thing he did was picking her up bridal style one more time. As soon as he had done that, he took off in high speed, leaving behind nothing but a cloud of dust. This time, they wouldn't waste time with sightseeing and instead would directly head to their destination which was "home". At least that was what Hare called it.

Shu for his part just hoped things would go smoothly for a change, once they arrived there. He certainly wasn't keen on another Nanba incident and it sure as hell would be awesome if he would actually manage to get to his friends and find an escape route without as much as to even get to see his sister.

He knew, though, that his hopes were just too optimistic once again.

One would think that he would have seen everything after preventing two apocalypses, seeing dead people, venturing into some kind of parallel universe with unique rules such as "revival upon death", evolving and getting thrown into a endless void war initiated by his insane sister, but nope, Shu somehow had a feeling that he hasn't even seen the worst yet. Something terrible was about to happen…he just knew it.

And with that unpleasant feeling of uneasiness he flew off into the distance, mentally bracing himself for everything fate may have had in store for him. It may have been unfortunate for him, but, unlike his hopes, his bad feelings usually always came true…


	6. God Save the Queen

**6\. God Save the Queen**

The flight back "home" wasn't particularly enjoyable due to Shu's haste, but it at least saved them a lot of time. The king figured that a walk by foot would have at least taken them about an hour or more, where his speed flight had shortened the travel time drastically to only a couple of minutes.

Before they could actually approach the giant cluster of crystals that was Inori's fortress, though, they were intercepted by two men who also flew through the air thanks to their voids. The first one was a man in his mid 20s and wasn't of Japanese origin. Shu could tell that from the military uniform the stranger wore. It clearly said "U.S Army" on it. That wasn't all that surprising as the apocalypse hadn't only affected Japan during the peak of the crisis. The king was unable to tell the hair color of the stranger, for whatever the man in front of him may have had left of his hair, was kept hidden under the army cap he wore on his head. Only the stubbles of his three-day-beard could have been an indication for black hair. His eyes had a faint green color and thus matched the camouflage on the uniform the man worse. His void looked like some sort of jetpack which he wore on his back. It emitted blue flames that apparently kept him airborne. There also were two pipe-like cannons on each of his shoulders with a faint blue glow coming out of them. It wasn't very hard to guess that these things could spew some kind of energy projectiles which would clearly hurt like hell should someone make contact with them. Shu wasn't all too keen on finding out about that.

The second man was a teen. Probably something between 17 or 19. It wasn't as easy to figure out his origin as it was with the soldier next to him, but he didn't seem to be Japanese either or at least hasn't been in Japan for a very long time. He had tanned skin to such an extent that he obviously had to have lived in a very sunny region unless he had been to the tanning salon for every day in his life. He lacked any sort of Asian facial features as well and had short black hair, dark brown eyes and wore some baggy shorts alongside a long red T-shirt. Shu could see some expensive looking sneakers adorning the feet of the youth as well as an ear clip on his right ear. Everything about this kid screamed "Islander!" to Shu and he wasn't sure if he was right about that or just being stereotypical. The void the laid back young man rode was a hover board with nothing special to say about it. It flew which was pretty much its only function as far as Shu could tell. If he had to guess, he would assume that the jetpack was at least A rank where the hover board was B at most.

"You are entering a flying ban area. Identify yourselves and state your business." Was what the army-guy told them. What surprised Shu was the fluent Japanese the guy was able to speak. That were some serious language skills that guy put to display there. It was quite impressive.

Shu for his part just gave them a joking smirk. "Flying ban? Aren't you guys flying, too?"

The easy going youth chuckled, obviously agreeing that Shu had a point there and earned a stern look from his partner for that. The military man then directed his attention back to Shu.

"If you have to know, sir, I will inform you that we are on patrolling duty to make sure no one with the ability to fly gets past this point as of Queen Inori's orders."

Hare only groaned at that. "Oh, that's right. I forgot that since I am no flyer. Still, you guys could as well make an exception seeing as it is ME. You know, the girl who patched you guys up more than once?" She looked at them with pleading eyes and the hoverboarding guy was about to say something when he was cut off by the soldier.

"No exceptions, ma'am."

"Come on, Jimmy. Cut that army crap. She clearly is one of us and can be trusted." That was the first thing Shu had heard the Islander say.

"It is called 'taking your duty seriously'. Something you obviously still have to learn, boy." The U.S. soldier whose name appeared to be "Jimmy" said.

"Don't call me 'boy', man. It's Juan and you know that." The youth called Juan stated with a growl. "Besides, this is patrolling duty. The most boring duty there is."

"Doesn't change the fact that this is important so you better take this seriously. It is our obligation to make sure the civilians back home are safe. What if they were Mana's spies or if they came to launch an air attack? You ever thought about that?"

"Hare? A Mananite? Best joke I have heard in a while." He gave off a snort, apparently holding back a laugh.

Shu raised a brow at that. Mananite? A term that referred to Mana's soldiers? Hare noticed his confusion, so she whispered: "We used to call Mana's soldiers 'Mana knights'…it was shorter than calling them her soldiers all the time. Over time, it just became 'Mananite' and we decided to leave it that way. Especially since there never was anything knightly about them in the first place."

Meanwhile, the little discussion between both guards continued.

"Yeah? And what about that stranger she is with? What if he is dangerous?"

"Dude, he's with Hare, how dangerous could he be?" Juan shrugged it off.

"Ever heard of those voids that could create clones? What if this isn't even Hare?"

Said girl only sighed with closed eyes. "The current security code is 62KB. If that's not enough then I can give you the previous one which was 79LP…and the one before that was…" She was about to continue announcing random codes which didn't make sense to Shu when Jimmy decided he had heard enough and cut her off.

"I get it. The codes are correct. You must be Hare, alright."

"See? Told ya." Juan showed them all his biggest grin. "So who's he?" He wanted to know afterwards. He pointed at Shu while asking.

"A friend." Was all she said to them. To Shu's surprise, they both just nodded as if that was all they needed to know. That's why he couldn't help but give them a puzzled look while asking:

"You two are fine with that explanation?"

The American just folded his arms in front of his chest and nodded. "Hare was there for me when I needed help. I trust her with my life. If she says you are a friend, then that's all I need to know."

"Same here!" Juan agreed.

The brown haired king smiled when he heard that. Unlike the Tennouzu thugs, these guys actually trusted each other. That certainly was a good sign.

"The name's Ouma Shu. Nice to meet you."

He noticed how both of the men shared a meaningful look before turning their attention back to him.

"THE Ouma Shu?" They asked in unison, disbelief clearly showing on their faces.

"Better believe it, guys. He's the real deal." Hare answered with a huge grin. Shu only laughed nervously.

The confirmation of Shu's identity obviously delighted the guards as they commenced to cheer and high fiving each other.

"Finally, that means we get to leave this rat hole, right? Hell yeah!" Juan happily made some backflips with his hover board and held his arms high into the air while yelling: "Kiss my ass good-bye, you damn realm of the void! Wooooh!" His voice echoed through the whole area before finally fading.

"Not so hasty, Juan. That was only the theory, remember? Leave the cheering for when we actually get out of here." It was Jimmy who tried to get his friend back into reality. They weren't free yet, after all.

"Right." The youth scratched the back of his head while smiling sheepishly. "So what's the plan?"

Shu didn't even need time to think for an answer. "First I want to see Inori. Everything else can wait until after that."

"Of course." Jimmy nodded understandingly. "You both probably have a lot to talk about. Please, follow us. We will escort you." With that he turned around and flew away, Shu followed suit with Juan covering the rear. They slowly made it to the ground and walked the rest of the way, which wasn't very much. Shu could clearly see their base already, figuring they would need about 5 minutes by foot…10 if they took it easy. The king decided he might as well continue the conversation for the duration of the trip.

"Thanks for the escort. Your name's Jimmy, right?"

"Oh, sorry for not introducing myself. I am Jim Adams. You can call me Jimmy. Everyone here does. That loud fella behind you is Juan Diaz. It's nice to finally meet you, Mr. Ouma. We have heard a lot about you."

"Shu's fine." Shu said with a smile. "You Japanese is pretty good, by the way. Have you been there before? In Japan, I mean."

"Nope, not even once in my whole life. I learned it all here. Bet my friends back home in L.A. would shit bricks if they saw me speaking all sorts of foreign languages. I definitely am going to show off once I get back." The soldier said with a huge grin.

"Languages?" The use of the word's plural form immediately caught Shu's attention. "You learned more than one?" He asked in bewilderment.

It was Juan who laughed at that. "Pff, please. I can speak at least twice as many languages as Mr. Muscles over there. I am pretty much fluent in Spanish, Italian, English, Japanese and Turkish. And I am getting the hang of French, too." He stated proudly while counting all those foreign tongues with his fingers. "Pretty impressive, right?"

Jimmy merely chuckled at that. "Quit joking around. Your Turkish sucks…and don't even get me started on your French. It's always a pain to hear that."

"Like you are one to talk…I don't know a thing about Russian, but even I can tell that you are pronouncing everything wrong. At least you got Japanese right or you would be in some serious trouble since no one would understand you."

Hare sighed at their antics. "Cut it out, boys. No fights between friends, remember?" Shu only stared at them in complete disbelief. They were kidding, right? They couldn't possible have learned all these ways of speaking now, could they? That's why he decided to ask them directly with a confused look on his face.

"You guys aren't serious, right?" It was Hare who answered him with a proud grin.

"They are, Shu. I've learned quite some stuff myself. German and English. A bit of French, too."

"Stop shitting me, Hare. You always sucked at languages."

" _Das war früher, Dummerchen_." Was what she told him with a wink. He just looked at her in utter disbelief. He didn't know a thing about German, but that sounded genuine enough. Especially since he knew Hare hadn't been able to utter a single foreign sentence for the heck of it in the past. She giggled at his shocked face and continued to talk.

"We got a lot of different people from all over the world in our community. When Inori took charge, people had to learn Japanese in order to understand her or there wouldn't have been a point. Luckily, most of this world's population is Japanese, so people had plenty of opportunities to learn. Not only did we all have lots of time to kill while being off-duty, we also realized that we somehow could easily learn new stuff if we put enough effort into it. Before people knew it, they were remembering vocabulary and pronunciation by talking with other people. Once everyone got fluent in Japanese, they pretty much started learning every other language they were interested in. It sort of became a hobby for everyone, since there wasn't exactly much to do in their free time."

"And that's it? You all learned multiple foreign languages in 5 years? No, sounds more like you MASTARED them. This is freaking unbelievable…"

"Well, it seemed to be more than 5 years to us, but I can understand your disbelief. All I can say is that it probably has to do with the evolution we had gone through. Maybe it made us smarter?" She figured with a shrug.

"More like geniuses…people usually get to learn 3 different languages at most and even those not necessarily fluent. Heck, I can't even speak proper English while you apparently know enough to move to Europe or North America and start a new life there."

She just smirked at him "Jealous?"

"Pff, who would be…?" Shu stated while pouting and looking away.

"Don't worry, I will teach you some day." She told him with a smile while poking his cheek that was turned at her.

"I'll pass. You suck at teaching anyway."

Now it was Hare's turn to pout. "That's mean. I always tried my best, you know…"

"Yeah, that's true. Though in the end, we still always had to ask Yahiro for help, remember?" He told her, but she wasn't even listening anymore. He saw her sulking with teary eyes.

"Uuuu~…I do not suck at teaching." She said absently. The brown haired man simply sighed and patted her head.

"There, there…"

The small group of four reached the crystal fortress right after that. Since he was now on the ground, Shu could see nothing other than the tall and sturdy looking wall that obviously held unwanted visitors at bay. Guards could be spotted at the top of these walls, as well as on the ground, right outside the defensive structure. Something which struck him as odd…why would you place people outside the wall, when it would be so much more efficient to let them stand on it? While he was wondering about that, they closed in on the two men who stood in front of the wall casually.

They both wore pretty expensive looking suits and shades which made them look like some kind of secret service. They also wore gold necklaces and Shu thought he had spotted a tattoo which was partly hidden behind one guy's neck. One of them had brown hair and leaned against the wall with folded arms while the other one with black hair simply stood there with his hands in his pockets, apparently talking to each other. Shu thought they looked pretty intimidating…like members of a yakuza gang or something.

"They say this world is supposed to provide us with everything we need, right? Well, I sure as hell miss alcohol…"They could hear the one leaning against the wall say with an annoyed voice.

"I hear you…I would kill for some cigarettes, too." His partner agreed. They then seemed to notice the new arrivals. "'Sup, guys? Is your patrol duty already over?" The question was obviously directed at Jimmy and Juan.

"No, we just happened to run into someone interesting and decided to bring him here. We will return to our post once we showed him around a bit." Jimmy explained and pointed at the brown haired man they had brought with them. The yakuza men took a look at Shu once they had heard that.

"That guy? Never seen him before. What's with him?" They wanted to know.

"That's Shu! He is the king we have been waiting for!" Hare said with a big smile.

"King, eh?" The yakuza guards gave each other a look with folded arms, not looking impressed at all. "Says who?"

Hare's expression turned into an annoyed one. "He does, I do and if that's not enough for you, then I will let you know that Inori says so, too."

"Really now? 'Cause this is the first time I even heard that there was a king in this place. All I know is that there are two queens, one of which is a mad bitch and the other one who is our boss. I don't know any kings."

"Oi, you never listened to Inori's stories?" Was what Juan asked them angrily. "How could you not know?"

"We heard her stories, alright. But never did she refer to anyone as 'king'. It was you guys who automatically assumed that Ouma Shu was the king, just because some hobo called Keido told you he was." The brown haired guard stated with an unimpressed voice. The other one nodded.

"Yea, and besides…how should we know that he IS that famous Ouma Shu she kept talking about in the first place? It's not like we have a clue how he even looks like…to be honest, I kinda imagined him to look stronger, or scarier. The person you brought here just looks like your average guy."

Shu merely chuckled at that. Back at home he was either regarded as some kind of super hero or the biggest scumbag there ever was. To finally meet someone who thought he was "average" was a welcomed change in things. However, he wanted to get in, so he had to change their impression of him for the better. With an amused expression he stepped up to the black haired guard and looked right through his shades and deep into his eyes. "I suppose you want some proof then?"

"Well, y-yeah…?" The man in front of him replied nervously as he noticed Shu's eyes becoming redder and the glowing hole which appeared on his own chest. "Hey, how the fuck are you doing that?"

Shu lifted his right hand up and turned the back of it to the guard so he could see the symbol of the power of kings that had magically appeared on it. "See that? When this appears I can pull out other people's voids. Let me show you."

He shifted his weight and readied himself for what appeared to be a strike with his hand. Before the guard could prepare himself, the king had used his power to quickly thrust his right hand into the man's chest only to immediately pull it out again. What appeared in his palm was a void in form of a small caliber pistol. The guard only groaned in pain and bewilderment due to Shu's roughness during this whole process. He felt like he had just been hit by a truck and was about to fall unconscious, but Shu simply put the void into the man's hand which brought him back to his senses instantly. Both yakuza men just blinked at the king's display of his own power, apparently not able to fully understand what they had just witnessed. It all had happened in a couple of seconds.

"And that, gentlemen, was the power of kings. Any questions?" Shu asked with a big grin to which the guards just exchanged confused looks, followed by looking at the just-extracted void in the black haired man's grip.

"Dude…he just pulled out your void…no one was ever able to do that…" The brown haired guard said in shock. "It also matches the stories. You know…him pulling out voids and stuff?"

"Yeah, it does." The other guard agreed while massaging the back of his neck tiredly. He then faced Shu again. "Still, you could have done this in a more gentle way…what was the point in almost knocking me out?"

"You sounded disappointed when you said you thought I would look stronger in your imagination. I thought I would do you a favor by at least showing you that I am not weak." Shu explained with a smirk. "Satisfied now?"

"Satisfied my ass…that hurt, y'know? Tch, whatever…" The black haired yakuza-guy faced the rest of the group. "I'll let you all in…bring him to the queen and keep an eye on him. I will be responsible if he turns out to be dangerous since I was the one who let him through. If I get scolded by the boss, I will make sure to let my frustration out on you all, got it?"

"Yeah, yeah…" They all waved it off since they knew that wasn't going to happen anyway and stepped forward towards the wall after telling the guards their security codes. Shu wondered how they would get in, since he saw no gateway of some sort. All there was in front of them, was a huge, hard crystal wall. That's when the brown haired guard, who leaned against it, simply touched it with his hand, which in return made the wall start glowing faintly.

"Alright, the gate is open. Go." Were the guard's words. Shu only looked at him questioningly.

"Uh…go where exactly? There is a crystal wall in front of us…"

"Hah! Watch!" Juan laughed and touched the wall. As soon as he had done that, a glowing hole appeared at the spot he had touched it. The king watched in amazement as the youth in front of him simply stepped into said hole. Next thing he knew, the boy had already vanished…as had the strange 'gateway'.

"Holy-…! He just merged with the crystal!" He said while stepping back in shock. "How is that possible?" Hare was quick again to raise her finger and explain in an all-knowing manner.

"Evolution, remember? We can merge with crystals if we want to. These in front of us are special, though, as we can only go through them, when they are activated. Only the guards can switch them on and off because Inori gave them the right to do so."

"That's insane…just how powerful did you all get? Improved senses, the ability to draw your own voids, merging with crystals…what's next? X-ray vision?" Shu asked, completely baffled.

Hare only grinned mischievously at that. "Now wouldn't you like that, huh? But nope, no such thing. Come on. It's your turn now. Try it!" She pushed him forward with him looking slightly reluctant. After all, he was just about to become one with a structure for god's sake! Who knows how that would feel like…?

"Wait, Hare…I am not ready for this! Can't I just fly over the barricade?" He protested while constantly getting pushed nearer to the gate.

"If the guys on top of the wall see someone flying, they will shoot them down. That's the rules. Only way in and out are the gates, so you guys better move it." Jimmy said while passing them with a shrug. "I will be waiting on the other side. Don't keep us waiting!" And with that he simply walked into the crystal wall like it was nothing. Was it really that easy or did it only look that way because they were used to it?

"Fine, I get it…stop pushing, will you?" Shu said while stepping away from Hare. "So what do I do? Just walk into it?"

"Pretty much. You just think about passing it and then you simply do it. It isn't hard. Like walking through water, only that you don't have to hold your breath. Come on, give it a try!" She explained while cheering him on enthusiastically.

"Easy for you to say…" He grumbled silently, so that the girl couldn't hear. Another skeptical look at the crystals and a heavy gulp later, he finally found the resolve to move forward. "Well, I guess here goes nothing!"

With these words he then touched the gate. At first nothing happened, but he then remembered that he had to think about passing the wall for it to work, so he envisioned himself actually walking through it. And to his surprise, the hand which touched the wall actually sunk into the crystals like it was nothing at all, despite the obvious sturdiness the wall had displayed only moments ago. He turned around to his brown haired childhood friend who only nodded at him with a kind smile, urging him to go on. And so he turned around again and continued to venture forward until his whole body had vanished into the structure.

The experience of being inside a crystal wasn't as special as he had previously assumed, yet was still kind of fascinating. As soon as he had stepped through the surface of the wall, he had found himself inside of it. The best thing he could compare the interior of the defensive structure with, was a tunnel, which he had just entered sideways. The barricade appeared to be completely hollow to him on the inside, despite being at least ten meters wide. He could look to the left and endlessly stare into a corridor, then he could turn to the right side and see the same. If he was right to assume that this wall surrounded their base, then he would probably be able to start walking into one of these two directions and eventually end up here again at one point, making one run around their whole camp. Another interesting fact was, that he could look outside through the crystal's surface as if it was made of glass…something he wasn't able to do when he had still been outside. That he was sure of.

He made use of that ability to take a glimpse at Hare, who was still outside. She said something to the two yakuza guards and then stepped in, leaving them to themselves again.

"See? It wasn't that hard." Was what she said to him as soon as she had appeared next to him.

"True, but why is this wall hollow on the inside?" He asked her that since he found it to be odd. What was the point of a hollow barricade? Even under the assumption the crystals themselves were as hard as diamonds, it would still be foolish to not make them massive…there was also no point in the wall being so thick if all that was inside was air…

Hare only shook her head at that question. "The wall isn't hollow. It's massive. It only looks that way because we are passing through it. It's easier to move around that way." She explained.

"…I see…so if this all is actually massive…that makes this wall a pretty tough obstacle, right?" Shu realized while taking a look around him again.

Hare nodded. "It is. It was never breached in all these years, though there was a time Mana had launched an air attack and killed a lot of civilians on the other side. Hence the flying ban in and around the city. It's easier to make sure the enemy stays outside that way."

"That was probably a smart decision…you even got security codes and stuff. I can't believe Inori came up with something like that. I certainly wouldn't have."

"She didn't have to come up with all that stuff alone. People are glad to share their ideas around here. The security code was introduced because people were afraid of spies tricking the guards to get through the wall where they could start to either kill the defenseless civilians or collect information about their enemy. In certain intervals, the guy in charge of all the guards changes the code and tells the new one to the guards. Whenever someone leaves, they will get the new code told to them. When they return, they have to repeat the code. If it is correct, they can enter, if not, they get two more tries. If they fail again, they get killed." She explained.

Shu looked somewhat shocked when he heard that. "Killed? That's rather harsh…"

His childhood friend only shrugged, albeit not looking exactly happy about that fact as well. "It is, but it is better than taking the risk of letting enemies into our home. This place has to stay safe at ALL costs, since there are a lot of people living here who simply cannot fight. Besides, the code itself is rather simple. It is easy to remember it and even if you get captured by Mananites and forced to tell it to them, you could easily give them a fake…they would never know unless they tried, which would be their doom."

"Clever, but people could still find their way around that…"

"True, but the guards have been in charge for a long while. Since there hasn't been any newcomer in ages, they have started remembering the faces of everyone in our community. If someone strikes them as suspicious, they will be denied entry until the suspicion is lifted. That makes infiltrating our base a lot harder, I think."

"I suppose you are right. These guards also seemed pretty tough. Not easily impressed, either. Guess they are the right guys for the job."

"That's the Italian mafia for you. They sure as hell know their stuff." She noticed Shu's doubtful look and couldn't help but grin at that.

"Did you just say mafia? So they really were yakuza?" He asked her in shock and took another look outside, where both men from before were still standing, backs turned towards them.

"Well, it's not like they SAID they were from the mafia, but everybody thinks they are. They all know each other and claim to have worked in a 'family business'. Apparently said 'family business' had a 'business meeting' at the day of the last apocalypse. When the virus struck them, half their gang ended up here. No one really cares, through…not anymore. These guys know how to kill and thus keep us save. Plus, in all these years they have never turned against us, which pretty much earned them their place."

"So you mean to tell me these criminals are actually good people?"

The girl made a troubled expression and said: "They probably weren't before they came here and probably won't be should we ever leave, but we share a common goal here which is survival, so we all stick together. No matter what we once were, we are allies now. Besides, they are all loyal to Inori…some people think they might think of her as their new mafia boss or something…"

"I see…" Shu replied with a nod and tried to not laugh at the mafia boss comment, which was just way too ridiculous. He WAS concerned about them having criminals for allies, but well…being forced to live in a world like this changed people. If it could make Hare somewhat colder, why shouldn't it be able to make Mafiosi trusted allies? Who was he to complain when he hadn't been here in all these years to help his friends when these gangsters actually had? If Hare said they were alright, then he would have to believe that. After all, she had been stuck with them for years. Who would know better than her?

"But still, gangsters taking orders from Inori…I guess now I have seen everything." Shu added with a grin. Hare couldn't help but laugh at that.

"You are right, though it may be because Inori's orders feel like she was asking a favor of you, unlike Mana, who forces you to obey. It might not hurt their pride as much that way, but who knows…" She voiced her thoughts with a smile. "Anyway, we should be going. There is still much to see…"

The king nodded and followed her to the other end of the wall, where he could already see lots of people walking around through the see-through crystals. When they both stepped out, he couldn't help but gaze at them all open mouthed. Hare had mentioned civilians and he had assumed that she had meant the F and D ranks by that, which was probably correct. The point in which he had been wrong, though, was that he had also assumed the civilians to sit around in groups while looking tired and weak…waiting for this situation to be finally over like "his" F ranks had used to in Tennouzu High. These F and D ranks, however, seemed to be rather content with their current situation, seeing as most of them were happily talking to each other while keeping a smile on their faces. There wasn't a single frown to be seen anywhere, which surprised him.

"These people don't seem to be that troubled about their situation in this world…" Shu stated while scratching his head. This certainly wasn't what he had expected.

"Of course they aren't. They are safe here." Came Jimmy's reply. The grown man had waited for them on the other side of the wall together with Juan like he had promised.

Juan folded his arms behind his head and leaned it against them. "These guys haven't seen death ever since the aerial assault and that was loooong ago. I bet some of them have even forgotten that there still is a war going on outside these walls." He explained while sounding a bit bored.

"Maybe, but that's alright. Seeing happy faces every time the soldiers come back from outside is good for morale. It gives them something to fight for. Something to protect." Jimmy added. "Plus, the civilians are making themselves useful despite being unable to fight."

Shu could see what Jimmy meant. There were a whole lot of people doing work around here. He could spot a guy with scissors for a void cutting people's hair that had grown too long. A washing machine like void obviously took care of dirty clothes while a group of girls with sewing-related tools seemed to be fixing said objects if they were torn. He figured that some of them could even have been able to create new clothes from scratch, seeing as there were more clothes around than people to wear them. He could also spot a woman in the back who apparently gave lessons to people by writing stuff on a big crystal which served as some kind of board to her. To sum it up: These people looked like they were pretty busy, even though they weren't taking part in the war whatsoever.

Not everyone appeared to be working, though. There were people sitting together playing cards or kids running around while kicking a ball. Both, cards and ball, were voids, of course. Shu had found it a bit reckless to be kicking a void around like these kids were doing with that ball, but he figured that not every void had to be as fragile as the ones he had seen break in his lifetime, so he let it go and smiled instead as he watched them play.

"You know there is still hope if kids manage to play around like that in a world such as this…" Shu said. Everybody nodded at that.

"That sounded like something an old man would say, but you are right, I guess" Hare said and giggled..

He narrowed his eyes on her and was about to complain about the "old man" remark, when he suddenly heard his name from somewhere, which obviously caught his attention.

"Man, I am telling you…I am Ouma Shu this time." The king looked into the direction he had heard the voice come from and was surprised to see two young boys talking to each other. Were they fighting?

"No fair. You were Shu last time. It's my turn now."

"Yeah, but my void is stronger than yours so obviously I have to be Shu. You can be Gai."

"Who wants to be Gai? You be Gai!"

"No way in hell!"

Shu looked at them in confusion. "What's up with them?" he asked his friends.

"They are playing around I guess. The kids like Inori's storys. Maybe they want to act like they were you and pretend they are saving the world? I think it's cute." Hare said with a sheepish smile to which Shu only sweat dropped. This was way too awkward.

"Why me? What happened to Spiderman and Batman?"

Juan only laughed at that. "Come on, don't be like that. Spiderman and Batman are only fiction. You, on the other hand, are the real deal. Of course you would be more popular."

Meanwhile, the kid's fight had escalated and the two little boys started using their fists and nasty looking kicks to sort out their differences.

"Uh…dunno, but shouldn't we stop them?" Jimmy said while watching the fight with a troubled expression.

Hare smirked and pushed Shu forward. "Right. Showtime, hero." The king stumbled a few steps forward and turned around to object, only to see the three of them giving him a thumbs-up and a reassuring smile. He frowned when he realized there was no way in hell that he was going to back out now, so he simply had to swallow the bitter pill and get it over with. What made this hard for him was the fact that he never had been good with children…he just never knew what to say to them, thanks to his crappy socializing skills he never got to improve during his high school days. Hopefully he had improved enough by now to still get this whole situation solved peacefully somehow.

"Hey boys, what's the matter?" he decided to start after he had walked up to them. They were both little kids, probably something between 8 or 10 years old. One of them was blond with blue eyes, while the other one was brunet with green eyes. They both wore pretty unremarkable clothes, probably made by one of the seamstresses Shu had seen earlier. They weren't exactly fashionable, but would withstand almost everything a kid could do to tear them, so he figured they would probably serve their purpose. Neither of them seemed to recognize him as the real Ouma Shu, which didn't surprise him in the least. They had never seen him after all.

"He won't let me be Shu again, even though he got to be him last time we played." The brunet kid explained while pointing at his friend.

The blond boy was quick to defend his decision. "That's just because it would only be more realistic to have the one with the stronger void be the hero. What point is there if the hero was weaker?"

They both showed him their voids and Shu had to hold back a chuckle when he saw them. The blond kid's void was a slingshot while the brunet kid was unfortunate enough to have a hand-held vacuum cleaner for a void. The king could only imagine how boring that must seem to a kid who saw people use swords, guns and other cool weapons all the time.

"I see…that certainly is a problem…" Shu agreed with closed eyes and looking like he was deep in thought. He had crouched before them so that they wouldn't have to look up to him so much. The slingshot user grinned in victory while the boy with the vacuum cleaner looked at him with teary eyes. "However…you don't necessarily have to look at the void's strength, you know. There are other ways to decide this."

The kids looked at him as if he had said something funny. Both raised a brow at him questioningly. "There is?"

Shu smiled at them. "Sure thing. For example, do you know what Shu's void was able to do?" he asked them, thinking that there was no need to tell them that he was the actual Ouma Shu right in front of them. It might have made them happy, but it also would have been way too awkward for him to deal with the situation.

"It could assume eeeeeeverything!" the kids said while spreading their arms to symbolize how much they meant by "everything".

The king nodded. "That's right. And which of your voids do you guys think is closer to that power?"

The boys looked down on the gadgets in their hands for a while, before the brown haired kid's face lit up with excitement "Mine is!"

Shu ruffled said kid's hair and grinned. "Exactly. It isn't the same thing, but it at least sucks in stuff, so it's closer to Shu's void than a slingshot." He then looked at the blond kid and said: "This way he can be Shu, right?"

The slingshot kid seemed to not be happy about that in the slightest, yet couldn't deny that Shu had a point there. "I guess he can…but I don't wanna be Gai!" He added with a frown and folded arms.

Shu just looked at him questioningly. "Why not? He is pretty badass."

"Because he's evil. I don't wanna be the villain…"

Shu looked at the kid for a couple of seconds and seemed to think. After a while, he simply sighed and said: "You know…I wouldn't say Gai was necessarily evil. He just did the wrong things for the right reasons." He tried to explain. Truth to be told, it wasn't exactly easy for him to say that…especially since he had had to go through hell because of Gai's actions in the past. But in the end, it still was true. At least he thought so.

"Still, he hurt Inori! Inori is nice. Gai is bad! I won't ever forgive someone who hurts Inori!" He said while sounding awfully determined. It made Shu share an approving smile with him.

"You and me both, kid…you and me both…but, see…Gai, he thought he would help a friend by doing that. So he might not be entirely good, but he isn't completely evil either. Plus, he was once someone who Shu had originally looked up to because he was a great leader. How does that sound?"

"Woah…I never knew that Shu looked up to him. He must have been kinda cool then!" The blond said in awe, suddenly starting to get interested in being the villain as long as he got to be someone interesting.

The brown haired kid also seemed to be amazed by Shu's knowledge. "You sure know a lot, mister. Do you listen to the stories, too?"

"You kidding? I am a huge fan." He told them with a grin.

"Seriously? Cool. Let's share information some time, okay? Maybe we will learn more stuff about Shu and the others!"

"Yeah, sure. Sounds like fun."

The kids beamed once they heard him agree. "Awesome!"

"Come on, let's play." The kid with the slingshot said to his friend and started to run off, the brown haired kid quickly followed him. Before they were gone, they turned around and waved Shu good bye. "See you later, mister!" Then they vanished behind some crystal structures. The king sighed while absently looking into the direction the boys had vanished into.

"These kids sure got me thinking about the past…" His thoughts were interrupted by Hare who approached him with a big smile.

"Good work there, Shu. You were adorable with these kids." The brown haired man only averted his eyes nervously and seemed to blush a bit. That compliment meant a lot to him, considering that he previously thought he had no talent with talking to kids at all. Maybe he had been just lucky this time.

Jimmy and Juan followed suit. "'Doing wrong things for the right reasons', huh? You really believe that?" Jimmy asked with a doubtful expression to which Shu only nodded.

"I do. Gai was willing to do everything for the person he cared most about in the world as long as it bore the slightest possibility of saving her…even if it meant to become humanity's public enemy number one. If our roles had been reversed, I might even have considered doing the same thing, you know…"

"So that means you forgive him?" Juan asked in amazement, but Shu only shook his head slowly.

"No…I could never. The things he did may have had their reasons, but they were bad nonetheless. He knew that I would never forgive him and still decided to go along with it, which only shows how important it was to him. From that moment onward he and I started to walk different paths and I am afraid that should they ever cross again, it would only end in battle. There is no turning back for us now and I am sure he knows that as well."

The three of them watched him as he looked up to the "sky", lost in thought. Hare felt bad for Shu, who knew that he and his best friend could never be how they were before. She knew it must pain him deeply, but there was just nothing to do about it. Sometimes people went different ways forever…that was just how life worked. She decided to silently vow that she would never ever do the same to Shu. Once they would all get out of here, she would always stand by his side and support him, like she had always done. It probably won't be easy for her, but if it spared her the look of a sad Shu, then it was worth all the pain in the world to her.

Jimmy went up to Shu and laid a hand on his shoulder. "I know it's hard, but it's good that you know where both of you stand. With things standing as they do, he could turn out to be your enemy any moment now. He is Mana's right hand man and the mastermind behind their operations, after all."

The look in Shu's face grew determined. "I figured as much and I am ready should that moment come, but I don't plan to stay long enough to meet him. I just want to see Inori, think about a plan to get us all out of here and leave everything else behind like it's supposed to be. Maybe by doing that, Mana will also get her peace, knowing that there will be no one left to fight."

"That sounds like a reasonable plan. The soldiers are slowly getting tired of battle anyway." The American soldier nodded approvingly with folded arms. "Perhaps we should make haste then. There is no time to waste, no?"

"You guys think Inori will be in the palace?" Juan suggested and pointed towards the biggest crystal in the area. It was the huge, glowing one Shu had spotted when he and Hare had gotten a view of the area from above. He had previously figured it served as some kind of beacon to guide the fallen back home, but apparently it was a palace after all.

Hare seemed to share Juan's thoughts. "Probably...if she were out here, we would most likely have noticed by now. People tend to swarm around her."

"Let's take a look, then." Jimmy said and took the lead. Everybody else simply followed him. While they kept getting closer to the gigantic crystal before them, Shu used the opportunity to look around once more. No matter where he looked, though, he always saw more or less the same. People doing either work or relaxing together and doing something to kill time.

And to be honest, he was relieved about that. He seriously doubted that these people were the same as the ex-students he fought earlier. No, the people around him still had something to look forward to…something to hope for. They may have had more darkness inside them than your average person would, but considering their circumstances, that would still be acceptable. After all, these men and women had been stuck here for ages. Some were probably cut off from their family and friends and ended up all alone in this harsh environment. And what about the kids he had seen earlier? Gosh, if they really were between 8 or 10 years old now, they might have come here when they were between 3 or 5. What sort of childhood was that supposed to be? They may have been safe in here, but still. Kids their age deserved to go to school, meet more kids and have a normal life. This shit was seriously fucked up if you asked him. Hopefully he would manage to fix this mess soon.

They had reached the entrance to the huge crystal building after a couple of minutes. Standing right next to it only made it appear taller than you would have thought it was by looking at it from afar. There was nothing Shu had seen in his life that he could compare its height to. All he could say about it was that the Tokyo Tower would have been a huge joke were it placed next to it. What made it even more impressive was the fact that it was hollow inside, allowing people to go inside. It probably had several stories, too, seeing as he could spot several windows and balconies further on the top. Just how the hell did they build this thing?

"There we are, Shu." The American said while proudly pointing at the huge building as well as grinning from ear to ear. "The pride of our home. Inori's palace. Everything important happens here. Community meetings, announcements from the queen, court, infirmary…heck, it pretty much is the heart of our base."

"Dude, you gotta see it from the inside. The light from the outside shines through and gives off a SICK look. It's seriously breathtaking." Juan added enthusiastically while moving his arms around in an attempt to put some emphasis on the words he said.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go in." It was Hare who said that, gesturing them all to get a move on while venturing into the building herself. Once they had all set foot into it, Shu was quick to understand what Juan had meant when he talked about a breathtaking view. The crystals somehow managed to break the light coming from the outside into various colors, creating a display of pure beauty everywhere you looked. The ground beneath them looked like a mosaic of dozens of different colors and if you looked up you got to see sparkling crystals everywhere.

"Holy…" Shu managed to utter in amazement. "I don't think there are words to express this beauty."

"Told ya." Juan grinned proudly.

The ground floor they had entered was pretty much the main hall of the building with no ceiling to be seen, except for the peak of the crystal far to the top. There were several floors above theirs which were connected by the branches of a huge tree-like crystal standing in the center of the lowest floor. There were no stairs to be seen anywhere. Another interesting thing the brown haired man noted, was the huge amount of people who appeared to sit right next to the wall of the building in some sort of meditating position. They had their eyes closed and seemed to be deep in thoughts. He wasn't sure if it was because of the lights from the outside that shone through the wall, but he also thought they might have even been glowing faintly. It got him rather curious.

"Guys, what's up with the people sitting around over there?" He asked while pointing to the meditating men and women in question.

"They try to reach the outside world." Hare explained. "Remember how we tried to reach you from inside this realm? We used this gigantic crystal as some sort of antenna to channel our thoughts and send them into the real world. It may look easy but it took us ages to learn it. Most of these guys decided to try it as well, but rarely anyone ever succeeds. I think only ten or so people managed to actually reach the outside world with me and Inori being two of the ten. That still doesn't stop people from trying, though."

"To make it easier to understand…they are all trying to watch some reality vision, but get nothing but static. Bad reception, get it?" Juan tried to explain it in a more funny way. He didn't seem to mind that no one even as much as smiled at that.

"I see…must be very tough…some of them look pretty exhausted." Shu noted after he took a closer look at them.

Hare groaned, obviously remembering her own experiences with that kind of telepathy. "It gives you headaches, too. People need to rest for a while after every session, which only made it harder to connect with the outside world. No wonder it took us years to finally reach you."

Jimmy cleared his throat to get back to the main reason they came here. "Anyway, the throne room is on the highest floor. We can check out everything else after that, if you want."

The king winced when he heard that. "Top floor, huh? Time for some stair climbing, I guess…which reminds me…where are the stairs?"

"No worries, mate. We have the elevator of the future right here." Juan laughed and ran up to the tree-like crystal. So it wasn't merely for decoration?

"This baby takes you anywhere you want, as long as it is connected with the place you wanna go, of course." He continued his explanation. "You simply touch that thing, think about the floor you want to go and then…" To demonstrate the actual process, Juan touched the tree himself. What happened next was him vanishing in a flash, followed by a glowing light rushing through the branches right to the top.

"This world never ceases to amaze me…" The king said as he watched yet again something he would have never believed to be possible.

"Alright…your turn, Shu." Were Jimmy's words to him right after that. Shu had already walked through crystals at this point, so he wasn't going to back out of yet another crystal oriented kind of transportation.

"I guess this shouldn't be very…" He simply said with a shrug and went over to the tree to touch it. To his surprise, the moment his hand met its surface, he was already at another place, standing next to Juan. Hare and Jim appeared right after that. "…hard…?"

He looked around confusedly, thinking that this had been a bit too sudden. This must have been the fastest way he had ever traveled, literally. It was like closing your eyes at one location and opening them again at another. This sure as hell even surpassed sorcery.

"This totally needs to find its way to the outside world, just saying." The king obviously approved of this useful way of public transport and well, why shouldn't he? It was fast, it was environmentally friendly and it was…only available to people who had gone through evolution…Shu's friends noticed how said man's shoulders started to slouch in disappointment. For this awesome invention to work, billions of people had to die beforehand, which, of course, wasn't worth it. Still, it was such a shame…he should probably find some time later to try it out a couple of times again before he left this place…first things first, though. He couldn't wait to see Inori again, after all.

"Shu, you okay?" Hare said with worry in her voice, but the brown haired man only shrugged it off.

"Don't worry, I am fine. So, are we there?" He started to look around and noticed that this was the floor closest to the top. It was a big room in which thousands of people could have fit in effortlessly. The ceiling was made of a dome in form of a five sided pyramid and its peak right over the center of the room. Unlike the walls further downstairs, the walls up here were see-through like glass and allowed to take a view over the whole camp, its protective wall and a bit beyond that which could have been useful to detect invading armies early. Further ahead, on a small pedestal, stood a very decorative crystal throne which, very much to his disappointment, was empty.

"Come on guys, you said she was here…this isn't funny, you know…?" Shu sounded sort of sad and a bit irritated. He had been patient so far and tried to enjoy all the new stuff he got to see, but all that started to mean nothing to him if he didn't get to see the person he longed to see ever since he had lost her what felt like an eternity ago.

Hare for her part looked completely surprised about that herself. "Huh, she isn't here either…? But then were could she have run off to?"

"If she went into hiding because the stress got to her again, then there is no way of finding her until she wants to be found…" Jimmy grumbled, slightly annoyed. Juan only sighed at that.

"Would you blame her, though? She hardly gets time for herself with all the people swarming around her...of course she would try to sneak out every now and then. She is no robot, after all."

"The burden of being a leader…it must lie heavy on her shoulders." The king thought out aloud. "I remember when I tried to be one with only a fraction of the people SHE has to lead. When I found it hard already, how must she feel about all this?"

"It doesn't seem like she has problems with it most of the time, though…" The islander replied with a shrug.

"Well, of course not. A leader has to look strong and reliable. What purpose would it serve to show her people her weak side?"

"Shu's right. That's why she needs time for herself every now and then to collect her thoughts. That way she can continue to stay strong in front of the others." Hare agreed with Shu but sighed in the end. "Still, her timing just sucks. Why does it have to be now of all times?"

"Well, it seems like it can't be helped. I will have to look for her then." Shu declared while turning around and attempting to leave. Of course he would have preferred Inori to be here so he could finally meet her again, but when were things ever easy…?

"That's hopeless, Shu." Jimmy tried to reason with him, apparently speaking from experience. "We don't even have the slightest idea where to start looking. The best thing we could do would be to simply wait this one out. She will show herself again eventually."

"No way in hell am I simply sitting around, doing nothing. Inori is somewhere in this world, right? That's all I need to know. I will check behind every crystal one by one, if I have to." He merely replied without turning around. He simply went back to the small hole in the middle of the room through which the crystal tree "grew" through and vanished after touching it.

"Stubborn, isn't he?" Juan said and folded his arms in front of his chest. When he saw Hare suddenly taking off after Shu, he just watched her with a surprised expression. "Hey, where are you going?"

"I am going to help him, of course." She told him with a smile and vanished right after that.

Jimmy sighed as he watched her go. "Geez, what's up with them? Hare of all people should know it's hopeless…" He then massaged the back of his neck in a very annoyed way. "Guess it's back to patrolling for us now, huh?"

That immediately caused any sort of good mood, the younger man next to him might have had previously, to vanish instantly. "Urgh…I completely forgot…fuck my life…"

And with that, they decided to leave the throne room, albeit very reluctantly.

-GC-

Shu stepped out of the huge crystal building, figuring that if Inori wasn't going to show herself to people in the place they would expect her to be, she also wouldn't do so in the rest of the building in which the said location happened to be in. No one in their right mind would do so. No, if you didn't want to be found, you would want to avoid places people would look for you at.

Well, he at least knew that much, but you wouldn't have to be a detective to figure THAT out. So what now? He sure as hell said some cool stuff up there but he couldn't deny that Jimmy had had a point. He really had nowhere to start at. And looking around again at the sheer amount of people, who could possibly be covering up for their dear queen in need, or the billions of crystals, she could have decided to either hide behind or INSIDE of, he was going to have a very hard time searching for her.

"The hell was I thinking…?" He mumbled to no one but himself. "Well, no use getting all pessimistic…better start looking, Shu…"Was his pitiful attempt at self motivation.

"The things one would do for the people dear to them, huh?" He heard Hare's voice behind him. He turned around to see her slowly walking up to him, smiling and with her hands folded behind her back as if she was taking a stroll through the park.

"Indeed. Do me a favor and never make me look for you this way, will you?" He said with a sigh.

"You know me. I would never cause trouble for anyone. I am a good girl." He saw her big, innocent grin and couldn't help but pat her head while laughing quietly. She didn't say anything…just closed her eyes like a happy cat that enjoyed getting spoiled a little. Shu was sure she would have purred, too, if she had been able to.

"That's true. I suppose you are here to help me looking?"

"Maaaaybe…" She answered playfully while eying the brown haired man suspiciously. "If you would promise to treat me to something good once we get out of here. Well, what do you say?"

Meanwhile, some random people who passed them by seemed to notice their conversation and chuckled.

"Oh? Is that Hare? Quite bold of her to ask someone out on a date. I always thought she was the shy type."

"Give it your best, Hare! I am rooting for you!"

"Eh? How come you ask him out when you turned me down? You are so cruel, Hare!"

While Shu looked around confusedly, Hare was busy turning redder than ever. Her face felt so hot that she feared you would be able to see steam coming from it. In a panic she faced the people, waving her arms around fiercely in an attempt to deny every embarrassing thought they may have had.

"D-d-date? W-what are you g-guys talking a-about? I was just asking him to hang out, right Shu? You tell them!"

The man in question saw her looking up to him for help while he was busy scratching his cheek with a confused expression. What was all this fuzz about? It's not like he hadn't treated her to some food before. "Uh, yeah, I guess."

"See? See!? Nothing special here. Just friends being friends…haha." She awkwardly tried to explain with a nervous laugh.

The people around them all sighed in disappointment and started to walk off boredly.

"Aww, man. She chickened out. Too bad…"

"Better luck next time, Hare…"

"It was starting to get interesting, too…what a bummer…"

And with that, they all left. Hare just stood there, looking down at her feet with teary eyes while letting her shoulders sink in a defeated way.

"Uuuu~, why is this always happening to me…?"

"Uhm…are you alright, Hare?" Shu managed to ask her while standing behind her. What was he supposed to do in a situation such as this? How the hell should he have known when he wasn't even entirely sure what had happened just now in the first place?

"Yeah, yeah…I am alright…" Hare replied exhaustedly and commenced to scuffle away into a random direction, looking like a zombie. "Let's go look for Inori."

Shu sighed as he watched her go. Now, weren't they off to a good start? With her being like this, there wouldn't be a difference if she wouldn't have helped him at all. He was about to go after her with the intention to find some way to cheer her up somehow, when they both heard some screams, followed by seeing someone running towards them from the very same direction the screams came from.

"Outta the way, folks! I got a wounded soldier over here! Move it, damnit!"

The brown haired duo turned towards the direction the commotion was apparently taking its place at and soon noticed a man carrying another man in his arms emerging from the group of people that had gathered around him in curiosity. Earlier, Shu had heard Jimmy mention an infirmary being inside the palace they were still standing in front of…maybe that was where the stranger was headed to? It certainly would have explained why he appeared to come closer to them.

He eventually ended up recognizing Hare as he was about to pass them by and his face had lit up noticeably that very instant. Shu couldn't see much of him…he was all covered in dirt and blood to such an extent that you wouldn't even be able to tell if his hair was naturally black or just looked that way because of the mess he was covered in. Same went for his clothes, actually, if you could even still consider the torn rags he wore to be clothes at all…

"Thank god, it's Hare. Just who I was hoping to find. You gotta help him." The newcomer said and showed them the injuried guy he was carrying. The brown haired king had expected the worst when he had seen all the blood dripping down their clothes, but surely couldn't have been prepared for the view he was going to behold. With widened eyes he stared at a man whose half body appeared to have been blown off. Literally! His left arm and leg were missing as was part of his face. There was so much blood everywhere that anyone would consider it a wonder that this man was even still breathing. Wait, was he even breathing? Shu had no idea. All he could tell was that the victim was either unconscious or dead, seeing as he wasn't moving at all. He felt like throwing up after facing such a gruesome sight.

Next to him, Hare had already released her void once she had heard that there was an injured man coming in. "Lay him on the ground, quick." Were the orders she gave off with a serious look, her face being clearly devoid of the depressing sight she had shown Shu earlier. The man who held the victim didn't hesitate to comply. The moment he let go of the soldier in his arms, the void-bandages wrapped themselves around him and started to do their job.

Deciding to step aside to avoid being in the medic's way, the king watched from afar as the body of the poor man slowly started to levitate into the air while being engulfed in a faint light. Bones and flesh started to slowly grow back to the places where they had originally belonged to and everything looked like it was healing well, albeit taking its time in doing so. Time the man in front of them maybe didn't have, anymore. Every second counted here.

"Is he gonna make it?" The dirt-covered-man asked after some seconds of watching in silence.

"I don't know. I can heal his injuries, but chances are the blood loss already got to him first. There is nothing I can do if that's the case." Hare explained in a matter-of-factly without leaving her patient out of her eyes.

"He is one of our best soldiers. If he dies, it would greatly weaken our forces until he revives…" A new voice sounded off not far from Shu. A young brown haired man had emerged from the crowd and was now watching the scene grimly. He was slightly younger than the king and wore a black coat with a white shirt underneath. There were also dark jeans adorning his legs. Shu couldn't help but think he had seen this guy somewhere before, yet couldn't quite put a finger on it.

While he was busy figuring out why the young man somehow seemed familiar to him, the crowd around them started to grow bigger as the situation started to gain the attention of more and more people. Of course, Jimmy and Juan also noticed that something was going on once they happened to leave the palace. They spotted Hare and Shu and walked over. Since Hare obviously appeared to be busy they decided to ask Shu what was going on.

"What happened?"

"Some man brought in this half dead guy Hare is healing over there. No idea how he ended up that way." The king told them what he knew. Both newcomers decided to take a look at the victim and cringed.

"Wow…I wonder how that happened…" Juan asked while looking half disgusted and half pitiful for the man.

"Trust me, you don't want to know. If someone looks like that, their story usually isn't very nice to hear…" Jimmy said to him with a sigh and a slowly shaking head. Meanwhile, the people who had gathered around them grew more and more restless. Some started yelling:

"Hey, the hell is up with him? What happened out there?"

"That's the work of Mananites, isn't it? Are they close? Are we in danger?"

"Yeah, come on. Answer us already!"

That type of reaction wasn't all that surprising. Rather, it was to be expected when they usually didn't get in contact with sights such as this. It must have clearly worried them to see one of their soldiers being in that horrible condition. Before the situation could have escalated, though, the familiar man from before turned towards them, raised both hands in a calming way and spoke loud and clearly:

"Everyone, please calm down and give the medic the space she needs. I will find out what happened here and make sure to explain it to everyone later in detail, so please leave us for now and wait a bit."

Shu merely chuckled at that attempt to handle the situation. In his opinion it was a naïve move by someone who didn't know better as there was no way in hell that some halfhearted action like that was actually going to solve the problem. All the more reason for him to raise a brow in confusion once he saw the crowd actually calm down and slowly dispersing after they had heard that. Things usually didn't get to be settled that easily as people in fear tended to be unreasonable and selfish. In this case, however, it looked like the people trusted the word of this guy enough to leave things to him. This made the king only more curious about his identity. Who was he to hold this much authority in a place like this?

"Guys…who's that guy? I think I know him." He asked Jimmy and Juan.

"Him? That's Jun. A smart kid who acts as the voice of the people around here. He listens to everyone's smaller problems and concerns…the ones they don't really want to bother the queen directly with. He collects their thoughts and brings them to Inori. A troublesome job, but thanks to that, people trust him. When he says he will find out what's going on and tell them afterwards, then he will." Jimmy explained to him. Shu only backed off in shock.

"Did you say Jun? Jun Samukawa?" The American next to him only looked at him as if he had gone crazy. He nodded, though, not really getting what all that shock was about. Shu for his part only returned his attention back to Jun again to have another look at the boy he had killed all this time ago. He felt like smacking himself in the face for not realizing earlier. Yes, he may have only seen Yahiro's brother that one time without the virus covering half his body and yes, the boy had noticeably grown in the last couple of years, but still…to not notice the similarity between Jun's past appearance and his current one was still an embarrassing feat. How could he not have recognized the face of the man whose very life he had ended with his own hands? He truly was the worst…

Due to Shu's shocked reaction, the young man in question couldn't help but think he had just heard his name being used, so he decided to turn around to the source of the noise in curiosity. As soon as he had done that he immediately appeared to recognize Shu and, contrary to the kings expectations, happily ran up to him to greet him in this strange, new world.

"Shu? It's you, right? You really came! It's so great to see you! So our hard work to reach you from in here finally paid off!" He happily said while taking the kings hand and shaking it just to make sure he wasn't merely speaking to a hallucination. Shu himself didn't come around looking confused about receiving this kind of treatment. He had expected Jun to be sort of angrier with him for ending his life and banishing him into this sort of hellhole, yet that guy apparently was just happy to see him here, alive and well. No malice or hatred was to be felt in that friendly handshake of his.

Still, even if Jun was fine with what had happened…Shu wasn't. He would still say the words he thought he owed to say to the person in front of him.

"Jun…I am so very sorry about what happened to you back then…if only I had…" He started while putting both his hands on the slightly smaller man's shoulders, but got cut off gently. Jun just slowly brushed off Shu's hands and smiled.

"Just what the hell are you talking about? You saved me, Shu, and you saved my brother! You allowed me to die as the person I wanted to be, instead of letting me become a being driven by madness like the people we are fighting off today. I feel nothing but gratefulness towards you, Shu. So please don't apologize." Were his honest words to him.

Shu just stared at him once he had heard all that, completely baffled. This guy, despite the hardships he had gone through in his life, had still somehow managed to stay such a good person deep down in his heart. He was a man who had decided to see the good side of the things that had happened to him and be happy for it, rather than mourn over the bad side of it, which would have brought him nothing. And Shu? Well, it was probably accurate to say that he was seriously impressed by that, because in that regard, Jun apparently was even stronger than he had been himself.

Back in the days when he had just saved the world, Shu had done nothing but to shut himself away from the world, getting angry and feeling betrayed by it for taking away almost everything he had once held dear. He had refused to look at the bright side which was the fact that he had saved billions of people, because deep down, he honestly hadn't cared about that at all…at least at that time. After all, what use would their happiness have been to him? He couldn't have used that to somehow heal his broken self with it, right? So why had they got to be happy instead of him in the first place? It just hadn't been fair. That had been his thoughts at the time.

He simply hadn't been strong enough to think positive and thus had chosen the easier way which was to sink into despair. Now, the king couldn't help but wonder how he would have fared at that time, had he only had a fracture of Jun's strength. Would he have been able to put all his negativity behind him? Would it have been easier to come to the point he was standing on today? Or would he have been able to become an even stronger person than he was now?

He shook his head as he realized that he would never know the answers to these questions. What he DID know, though, was that he would get this man out of here together with Inori and the rest even if it was the last thing he was going to do. He grabbed both Jun's shoulders again and looked at him with a look so full of determination that it would have been able to convince him Shu could change the direction of their planet's rotation if he wanted to do so.

"I will bring you back to your brother, Jun. No matter what happens."

Jun gave him a relieved and bright smile upon hearing that. "Yes, please do!"

Their happy moment was interrupted by a heavy sigh from Hare. Apparently she had finished healing the wounded man. Everybody remained quiet as they watched her checking for a pulse and if her patient was breathing regularly.

"He's alive, but weak. Bring him inside and let him rest close to the crystals so that he recovers faster. Also, get him new clothes for when he wakes up. His old ones are obviously done for." Hare ordered the nearest two guys around while giving off the aura and authority of a doctor. No complaints were raised…everyone just did as she had told them. While the recovering man was brought to the infirmary, the remaining man who had brought him here was now receiving treatment from Hare. He was awfully loud and tried to resist her, yelling something about "having to return to the fight" and that someone "needed him", yet in the end, she still got him where she wanted and checked up on him against his will.

"Hare's amazing…" Shu caught himself mumble in astonishment while still watching her do her job.

"You bet she is. She has the strongest healing void in our whole group, probably even in the whole realm, and the matching kindness in her heart to make good use of it." Jun explained happily.

"Sounds like you are keeping a list of everyone." Shu said jokingly, only to be met with a serious look.

"That's because I am. It makes finding the right man or woman for the right job way easier. Or the best soldiers for certain enemies. It also helps keeping track of who is alive and who is currently reviving."

"So you actually cataloged EVERYONE along with their void power?" Shu asked in complete bewilderment. That would have meant they kept track of the status and strength of thousands of people. Jun only laughed nervously, feeling a bit uncomfortable by Shu's shock.

"I keep a list on the fourth floor of the palace. Don't be so surprised…I have very much free time in this world…"

The king only stared at Jun for a while before chuckling in amusement. "Man, you are Yahiro's brother, alright. He ended up doing the same thing in our school…only that we didn't have so many people as you do. I would have gone insane if I had to keep a list as long as yours surely has to be."

"I manage, somehow. Though I would be lying if I said I wouldn't long for the moment I finally get to throw all that shit out of the window and be done with it." He told him with a sheepish grin. Shu just laughed before he decided to change the subject and ask about the incident that had occurred in front of their eyes just now.

"Anyway…what was that about? That guy looked horrible."

"I guess that's what we will have to find out once Hare is done with the man who brought him here." It was Jimmy who said that, probably feeling left out of the conversation and thus deciding to make himself known once again. However, this only made Jun look at both him and Juan with narrowed eyes.

"Aren't you two supposed to be on patrol now?" He asked with a very accusing sounding tone. Juan gulped while Jimmy remained cool.

"Yeah, we are. But we found Shu and decided to bring him here. No harm in that, right?" The American explained with folded arms. Jun seemed to agree since he gave him an approving nod.

"I see. That's true. Still, you should hurry back to your post soon. This is a dangerous time, right now…"

The king raised an eyebrow questioningly. "Does this have something to do with the guy Hare just saved?"

"Probably. There is a huge battle going on right now. Mana's whole army was spotted earlier. She has mobilized every man she has and lets them march towards us. The queen and our soldiers headed out to intercept them. That way they cannot overrun this place." Jun told them with a serious expression. Everyone's eyes widened in shock.

"Mana is on the move? And you are only telling us this NOW?" Juan immediately used the opportunity to complain about the fact they haven't been briefed about such important information until now.

"Why not? There is no need to worry. Queen Inori went out herself to make sure the enemy won't reach this place. You all know that no one is a match for her." Jun stated rationally. "Besides, how could I have possible informed anyone who was outside the walls? I informed everyone I could reach via crystal phone as well as everyone who was inside the camp…that was all I could have done."

Shu gestured for the man in front of him to hold on while looking a bit frustrated. "Wait a second, just to make sure I am getting this…you have THEM attack you HERE, where you have these high, massive walls for protection and then you decide to send Inori OUT to fight on the bare field? Where is the logic in that?" He demanded to know.

"You don't understand, Shu. Mana's people outnumber ours 3 to 1. If Mana attacks this place full force they will simply overrun us. And even if we would somehow win, the damage would be enormous…not to mention the amount of civilians who would fall victim to enemy fire. Plus, fighting HERE would only slow Inori down, since she would have to hold back in order to not damage our own home. She is far more effective if she has room to fight. Since she is our biggest trump card, it would be a serious disadvantage to not let her use her full potential."

The king only looked at Yahiro's little brother in confusion. He wasn't sure if he exactly understood what the man tried to explain to him.

"Are you trying to tell me Inori is some kind of one-man-army?" Everyone around him nodded.

"I know it's hard to believe when you haven't seen it with your own eyes, but yes. If she gets serious, she is nearly unstoppable. She isn't the queen for nothing, you know." Jimmy said. "It's thanks to her we have won all our battles so far, since Mana isn't actively fighting herself and thus giving us the advantage."

"Yeah, Mana is probably the only one who would be able to match Inori. Good thing for us she thinks a queen shouldn't get her hands dirty or something like that. All she ever does is stand on the side lines and watch over the fight like it was a game to her." Juan added with a shrug.

"Exactly. So don't you worry, Shu. Inori got it covered." Jun assured the king, who for his part didn't seem all too convinced about that.

"Guys, I think you should hear this…" Hare suddenly called out to them. The group gave each other a worried look, before walking over to Hare and her loud patient. Once everyone was gathered around them, Hare talked to the man she had just healed.

"Okay, now tell them what you have told me a moment ago." She asked of him. The man gave everyone of them an angry look, apparently very displeased that he had to waste his time with this.

"How often do I need to tell you? I said I need to go! The queen needs me! I just wanted to drop my friend here and then hurry back to the fight!" He yelled impatiently.

"Calm down, soldier." Jun attempted to reason with the restless man. "Tell us what's going on out there."

Shu didn't know if it was due to the aura of calmness that surrounded Jun or because the man realized himself that they all deserved to know, but he eventually tried to relax. Once he was done doing that, he started to talk in a calm manner, so that everyone could understand.

"As you surely know, I was one of the soldiers who accompanied the queen on her campaign to vanquish the enemy threat that approached us. It was a routine mission for most of us, seeing as we have done this a couple of times already. We head out, flank the enemy, engage them in battle and drive them back. That's how it usually works. This time was different, though."

"How so?" The group pressed further.

"We soon spotted the enemy in a valley not far from here and thought they would gather their units for the upcoming assault, but we were wrong. It turned out that the entire army we found was merely consisting of decoys placed there to lure us into a trap, knowing that we would attack them. As soon as we realized that we were just attacking fakes, created by some sort of void, we were getting surrounded by the true enemy who had kept hidden in the crystal formations present in the area."

"That was awfully clever of Mana. She has never been this prepared before." Jun thought out aloud with a concerned expression.

"That's exactly what worried us as well. Not only had Mana not attacked us in a while to gather her soldiers for an all-out attack, she had even prepared such a big trap beforehand, which she had never done before. It was also highly suspicious how they constantly tried to lure the queen away from our reach. I didn't understand why they would do that until my comrade got hit by an explosion and I attempted to return him to the camp in order to save him. Once I had grabbed him and started to lift off with my void, I managed to get a glimpse of the enemy queen…she is there!" The soldier said with his voice full of worry.

Jimmy shrugged that information off, looking not impressed in the least. "Mana was previously seen near the battlefield. Never did she interfere with the fight herself. She was just watching."

"You don't understand!" The man in front of them suddenly yelled seriously. "She had her void drawn! Isn't that reason enough to suspect she is going to join the fight? They are trying to isolate the queen so that Mana can strike her down! We can't let this happen, you hear me? Send backup! Now!" The man demanded while grabbing Jun fiercely by his arm. The young man was quick to break loose, though. With a serious glare at him he answered:

"Even if you said that, there is no one to send! Inori took everyone we could spare with her!"

The soldier looked like he was about to reply to that, but before he could have even thought of something to say, he saw Shu step up in front of him. Tall and strong he stood there with a look full of resolve. One would have suspected him to be completely calm, if it hadn't been for his clearly visibly clenched fists left and right.

"In which direction is the battlefield?" He asked the man in front of him. His voice sounded calm, yet tense. It seemed like he desperately tried to appear patient while he obviously didn't want to waste another second standing around.

Unfortunately, the soldier didn't seem to have noticed that. Rather than telling the brown haired king the answer he was seeking out of him, he just eyed him suspiciously and asked:

"And who the hell are you? I don't see why I should tell that to someone I don't even know. You could be a spy for all I know…" The soldier said angrily while provokingly pressing a finger against Shu's chest.

Shu, on the other hand, was having none of that crap. Feeling that his patience was growing shorter with every wasted second, he simply grabbed the finger that was pointed at him and slowly started to bend it into the wrong way. All while glaring at the man in front of him. "Where?"He asked once again.

The soldier winced and tried to free himself of Shu's grip, but to no avail. Still, he didn't plan to give in that easily. He was about to give Shu a piece of his mind, but stopped all of a sudden when he noticed something off in the eyes of the stranger.

At first, they had been looking completely normal. Just a pair of brown eyes, glaring down on him. But the longer he had looked into them, the more he had started to see something else in them. It was as if there was a storm raging inside them, or rather in the brown haired man himself. A storm of different emotions which rampaged in him, pleaded to be freed and yet were still somehow locked up behind the wall of seriousness the man had surrounded himself with.

The soldier saw the worry for Inori in those eyes, as well as the anger Shu held towards Mana for threatening her. Then there was also the slight fear of having to face her once again and...nervousness.

He felt nervous because he was going to meet Inori again after all these years. He had looked forward so much to this moment ever since he learned of her well-being and yet…now that the time of meeting drew closer, he couldn't help but be plagued by doubts. He had seen what she had been able to build up in this world during his absence. This giant camp with thousands of people to call it home…all of which had sounded like they would gladly throw their life away for her. No one would have ever done that for him. He would have never been able to unite people the way Inori had. In a way, she had clearly surpassed him…did she even need him anymore? He knew it was a ridiculous thought and he had no idea where it even came from, but it was still there and worried him.

Yet, even though all that was going on inside him, his face showed none of it. The man in front of him had seen a glimpse of it in his eyes, but the moment he had snapped out of his trance and looked at the king normally again, he could see nothing of the things that troubled him. His face was like a mask that he used to hide his worries behind of. And it worked so well, that the soldier couldn't help but feel respect towards Shu for being able to pull it off.

"That way…" He finally said while nodding in the directing slightly behind Shu. "If you hurry, you can reach it by foot in 15 minutes."

Shu immediately let go if him and summoned Ayase's void. Much to the shock of his friends.

"What are you doing? You can't just…" They tried to stop him, but the moment the void hat fully materialized around his legs, he simply took off without a word, leaving behind nothing but a cloud of dust. He had been gone so fast that the people on the wall, who were supposed to look out for airborne things in order to shoot them down, didn't even have time to aim at him.


	7. War

**7\. War**

Inori's fortress quickly vanished behind him as he dashed through the air like roadrunner would have on the ground. Ayase's void glowed because of the pressure Shu put on it for going full speed, yet he didn't even think about slowing down in the slightest…no, he even tried to go faster. It wasn't until he heard the first sounds of battle near him that he finally allowed it to slow down and thus granted it some rest while he decided to approach the battlefield with caution.

Slowly, he flew closer to the ground to avoid being an easy target, like he had been when he had first got shot by an enemy sniper. He wouldn't do the same mistake twice. Staying near the ground, he carefully hovered closer to the sounds that came from a valley in front of him. He could only imagine what horrors would lie in wait for him there from listening to the horrible cries that filled his ears and the stench of blood that crawled up his nose. Once he finally came close enough to actually see what was going on, he had wished he would have never looked. There simply were no words to describe the awfulness that lied before his eyes which had grown wide from shock and disbelief.

Down there in this valley, countless of people used their voids to kill each other. He happened to spot a twelve year old brat beheading someone with a scythe, bathing in the blood of his victim. In the distance, people used higher ground to shot long range projectiles down the valley at people he assumed to be their enemies. Energy rays carved their ways through three people in a row while projectiles, coming out from rocket launcher like voids, exploded near them and completely tore them to shreds. Those who were lucky enough to actually survive that, were unfortunate enough to be caught on the fire that got caused by the explosions and slowly burned to death. In the air, people with voids capable of flying shot each other down. One of them got hit and fell meters deep into his doom all while crying his lungs out in the process. Surely he would leave nothing behind but a gruesome puddle of red on the spot he would eventually land on. As if on cue, he saw Juan and Jimmy fly in together with a couple of other airborne people who probably were their allies. So they still managed to scrap together a few people to send as reinforcements…

"Alright, people! Let's show those Mananites who's boss! Rain death on them!" He could hear Juan yell while putting his fist up in the air in a cheering move. The rest of them roared their battle cries in approval and swarmed out to fight their battles, leaving Juan to himself.

The next thing Shu could see, was how something came out on the left and right sides of his hover board. He watched in utter shock as he realized that the things, that had appeared, were in fact carriers for missiles with five of them on each side.

"Eat it, suckers!" Juan yelled once again and released the barrage of explosives his void came with. In a matter of seconds he plastered the ground below him with a carpet of explosions that effectively killed everything in its reach. People cried and yelled in pain as they systematically got obliterated. After the youth with the hover board had seen his success, he cheered proudly and flew off to fight elsewhere.

"What…what the hell is this…?" Shu finally managed to say after the long time his mouth had just hung wide open, unable to express a single thought. His eyes frantically searched for a spot he could have looked at, that wouldn't have showed him pictures of a cruel slaughter, but no matter where his gaze fell on, the things he saw only grew worse and worse. Until the moment he finally couldn't bear the sight no more and had to turn away to protect his sanity. This was far worse than he ever could have imagined. This was madness! Simple as that. There was no other way to describe this massacre in front of him.

And what made things even worse, was the fact that somewhere in the middle of all this chaos, Inori was apparently fighting her enemies. How was he supposed to locate her in that endless mess of blood, pain and terror? This was like trying to find a needle in a goddamn haysack!

"Well, well, if it isn't Kurosu's brat…" He suddenly heard someone say behind him. He quickly drew Yahiro's void and pointed it towards the source of the disturbance, ready to counter any incoming danger.

He was surprised, though, to only see a lone man standing in front of him with his hands casually folded behind his back. The look in his eyes was serious, but not hostile. There was also no void to be seen. When Shu sent the man a glare filled with suspicion, the newcomer decided to briefly show him his hands to ensure him he wasn't armed before folding them behind his back again.

Sensing no direct danger coming from that man, Shu decided to lower Yahiro's shears, but wouldn't dismiss them, yet, to stay on the safe side. He then used the opportunity to take a closer look at the stranger who had shown up out of nowhere.

He had long, black hair, which looked like a mess, as well as a long beard in the matching color. It made putting a finger on the man's exact age quite difficult, because most of his face was covered in hair. However, Shu couldn't make out any signs of wrinkles or the sort, which kind of excluded the possibility of the man being much older than 40. That at least narrowed down the stranger's possible age on something between 30 and 45. He figured that was as closest as he would get at estimating the man's age.

Moving on with the stranger's clothes, he soon realized that they had to be pretty old. He wore a long and torn coat that must have originally have been white, but was now something between beige and brown from all the dirt on it. There were a lot of holes in it, too, but he had definitely seen worse in this world. If he would have to compare the state of the man's clothes with those of some of the soldiers he had seen previously, especially those on Mana's side, he would say that the man's clothes were looking pretty good, considering the circumstances. They also somehow struck some sort of familiarity in him, which he found odd. Had he seen those clothes before?

Now that he thought about it…didn't this coat somehow look like the one the leader of the antibodies used to wear…? And then there was the fact that this man apparently had known his father, seeing as he had just said his name to him only a second ago. That only left one possibility open about the stranger's identity.

"Shuichiro Keido, is that you?" Shu then asked as his eyes slightly widened for a second in realization.

The man in front of him only nodded approvingly with closed eyes. "So you are still able to recognize me, despite this appearance…"

"Barely…you look horrible…" Shu merely stated, still kind of shocked about the man's change. He still remembered how Keido had used to look in the past. Always so clean and somewhat elegant…he had been a man with much pride and an aura of authority surrounding him. But looking at him now Shu would have to admit that previous descriptions of Keido's looks being said to be close to one of a hobo had been awfully accurate. Keido was actually just missing a trolley with random shit in it and the whole picture would have been perfect.

"I suppose that can't be helped…five years are a long time, and I own no void capable to take care of my hair or clothes." He sighed, sounding slightly ashamed. He then decided to change the subject, probably not least because of the fact that he hadn't liked the current topic in the first place. "So you have come at last, Ouma Shu. That must mean the fake queen must have succeeded in contacting you. Perhaps I have underestimated her…"

The king narrowed his eyes on him and said with an annoyed tone: "Her name's Inori, you know? It's not that hard to learn. Would it hurt you so much to not be an asshole for once?"

Keido just gave off a small chuckle. "Fine, I will call her Inori, then. She has grown much from being merely a fake anyway. Who would have thought that someone, who was intended to be nothing but a vessel, would eventually come to develop their own personality and even a soul as well…?"

"That only shows that things not always go the way we planned them…"

"True words, little king, true words…I suppose things didn't go that well for both of us…" Keido agreed with a slow nod.

"They never have…" Shu just said while taking another look at the battlefield, appearing to be lost in thought. He also tried to scan the killing field before him for a certain pink haired queen…to no avail.

Keido walked up to him and stood at his side as he, too, started to look at the battlefield. "So you have come to see the endless struggle between Eve and her former vessel. A pointless battle caused by no one other than you." That earned him an evil glare from Shu.

"Me? If anyone is responsible for all this, it would be you. You and the rest of Da'ath!"

"While Da'ath can be hold responsible for sending most of these people into this realm, it was you who sent both Eve and Inori here without coming yourself, thus breaking the system and causing us to be stuck in limbo." Keido calmly explained, without averting his eyes from the battle in front of him. "What you see is what happens if you put two queens into this world with no king to stand at their side.

"I never intended to send Inori here. I was meant to go myself."

"What happened?"

"Inori happened." Shu said with a weak smile. "I was willing to absorb the world's pain and die with it so she could have the chance to live her live to her heart's content. I was naïve enough to think she wouldn't come up with the same idea. The moment I had absorbed everything, she tricked me into taking back the very life I had given to her. I only realized when it was too late already. I don't blame her, though. She had known I would have never taken it if I had known what it was…"

"I see…things would have been easier if she wouldn't have done that, but what is done is done, I guess…"

"How come you aren't joining the fight, anyway?"

"What good would it do me to play a game in which the only winning move is not to play? Neither Eve nor Inori can ever win, yet Eve will never accept that. The only way out for them is together with the original Adam, but that has only become an option since the moment you came here. There was no reason to join either side until now, not to mention that joining a side was never an option for me or would have yielded me anything in the first place. I would have only been a slave on Eve's side and even if Inori had accepted me, I was always sure of the fact that you would still leave me behind in the end for the things I have done to you. I have come to terms with forever staying in this world long ago." Keido told him, still with the same calmness as before. Shu just sighed after he had heard him.

"That's too bad, because I will take you with me when I leave, you know…?"

"Hoh…?" Keido turned to Shu in what seemed to be surprise. "Why?"

"Various reasons. The most important one being that you know most about this world and how to escape it. I will have to rely on that information if I want to leave. Another reason would be my mother. Though you may have obviously been a huge asshole in the past, you still are her brother and thus family to me. She was deeply saddened by your loss, and I think she had lost enough in her life already by losing Dad. So you are coming back whether you like it or not, just to make her a bit happier again. I got a feeling that is what Dad would have liked me to do anyway. He never was someone to hold a grudge on someone, so he probably wouldn't have done so even for his killer."

"Damn you, Kurosu…" Shu heard the man next to him curse quietly while looking down, slightly saddened. "To be forgiven by your son even though I have killed you…has your strong heart been passed on to your offspring? He even became the mirror image of you…"

"I don't know about any of that, but I hope you will be making better use of the second chance I will be giving you."

Keido only closed his eyes and shook his head slowly. "I don't need you to tell me that I have wasted my life because of my envy…I know so myself. Luckily I have attained additional time by surviving the process of evolution. Should I really manage to follow you out of this realm, I will make sure to leave my past grudges behind and start living again…I have lost my interest in bringing the apocalypse anyway…"

"I am glad to hear that, though I do not understand what you mean by additional time…" Shu said while tilting his head in a confused manner.

Keido turned his head slightly into Shu's direction and looked at him through the corner of his eye. He appeared to think about telling Shu something that could have been important, but eventually decided against it, closing his eyes and shaking his head dismissively.

"Now is not the time for this. I am afraid you have different things to worry about now."

"That's true. I came to help Inori, but no matter how hard I look for her down there, I just can't seem to find her." Shu admitted in frustration. All he could really see were random people killing each other with voids. He couldn't even tell who fought for which side. It was pure chaos.

"Then perhaps she is not among them?"

"Where else could she be?" Shu wanted to know. Right at that moment, they both could see a huge crystal boulder appear in the distance. It looked like it had been thrown into the air with quite some force, flew a couple of meters through the air and ended up crashing on the ground somewhere behind the valley. Shu had only starred at it with a dumbstruck expression. Was the incredible Hulk playing football over there or something?

"I suppose you just got your answer…" Keido simply stated as if it hadn't been that much of a deal.

Shu looked at him like he had just heard him making a really bad joke. "You GOTTA be kidding me." There was no way in hell he would believe him only for a second that it could have possibly been Inori, who had just somehow managed to throw a car sized chunk of crystal a couple of meters through the air. There was no fucking way…or was there?

He gulped down heavily as he looked into the direction that incident had taken its place in. Well, there was only one way to find out.

-GC-

"Urgh…what the hell…?"

"Waaah, the pain! Get that huge thing off me!"

"I can't feel my fucking legs!"

People cried in pain while being stuck under a massive crystal boulder. There were also some of them that didn't cry…or move for that matter. Those people started to slowly crystallize and broke apart into millions of little shards that vanished into thin air, leaving those behind that were unfortunate enough to survive.

Inori watched them struggle and lie in their own puddle of blood. Her red eyes reflected pity but no remorse for having injured and killed quite a handful of enemy soldiers for aiming their long range voids at her only moments prior. They had come at her with the intention to kill, so naturally she would only seek to do the same.

It was slightly regrettable, however, that the boulder, she had thrown at them with the power of her thoughts alone, had been unable to kill them all, resulting in the remaining ones to suffer and slowly bleed to death. There were also the ones who had managed to dodge her attack and were now trying to stand up again.

If only she had reason to believe that these people would surrender and leave peacefully…if that had been the case, she would have considered the possibility of sparing their lives. Unfortunately, she knew for a fact that they wouldn't stand down. They never did. And so she slowly lifted her right hand towards the chunk of crystal that kept tormenting those poor souls beneath it, and gave off a quick jolt.

The object she was pointing her hand at was quick to respond to her movement. The moment she had done that, it had simply burst into many razor sharp shards that flew off into every direction. A hail of deadly projectiles killed off every poor soul that had been unlucky enough to have stood near the now busted crystal. The highly accelerated shards simply pierced their bodies and made them look like pin cushions before they dissolved into crystals like all the corpses did in the world.

"Don't let her get the upper hand. Surround her!" She heard someone shout orders not far from her. Seconds later a new wave of enemies had rushed towards her and formed a circle around her. All while she had simply stood there and watched them do so, completely unimpressed.

"We've got you surrounded, queen! Surrender and die!" They yelled at her.

"I won't. Rather than that, I will give you one last chance to walk away unharmed…" She calmly answered.

"Don't fuck with us! Today is the day we will finally kill you!"

"You leave me no choice then…I am sorry." They decided to attack her with their melee voids, but only had time to see her slowly close her eyes in disappointment before they were all suddenly met with the sharp end of a crystal spike that had grown out of the ground in the blink of an eye. From one moment to the other, all her attackers around her were being impaled gruesomely. They had died so fast that they probably hadn't even been able to feel pain. Their bodies hung there for a moment, before they, too, crystallized and begun to disappear like the bodies of their fallen comrades had before them.

"Keep attacking! She can't possibly take all of us out!" It appeared like the next wave of attackers was already prepared for her. About twenty soldiers raised their voids and charged in from all sides, but Inori gave herself unfazed yet again. All she did was make another move with her right hand. A gentle one, that looked like she was slowly brushing something away in the air.

Again, the crystals, she had created around her, reacted to her call. The spikes that were still drenched in the blood of its victims began to shatter into countless little pieces which kept surrounding her. Like a little whirlwind, they danced around their master to form a moving shield of thousand little crystal fragments.

The soldiers that foolishly kept running towards her were met with a lot of pain, seeing as the harmful objects acted like little knives and proceeded to cover their victims in cuts and bruises. Some were able to back off in time to not get torn to shreds, only to be unlucky enough to stand between Inori and yet another wave of attackers. This time there was a total of 50 people lined up 15 meters in front of her in two rows. The first row kneeled in front of the second one and all of them pointed their long to mid range voids at her, ready to fire at any second.

"Open fire! Now!"

And so they did. With no regards for their allies from the previous wave that had managed to get out of the crystal storm somewhat unharmed, they shot everything they had at her. Bullets, laser beams, energy arrows, explosives,…everything came into the pink haired queens direction.

But while Inori was merely lifting her arms to raise a massive crystal wall in front of her for protection, the soldiers, who happened to be in the way, apparently were not so lucky. They served as an additional, though also unnecessary, meat shield, seeing as the wall was more than enough to let the queen come out unharmed from that encounter.

When the barrage of bullets and explosive finally died down because the gunmen had to eventually let their voids recharge, Inori razed the wall down again as quickly as she had made it grow. The men and women in front of her all got an unpleasant feeling once they had realized she had her right hand pointed at them. Though they had attempted to take cover by jumping out of her view, their actions proved to be futile as the tiny crystal shards that had surrounded her up until now, suddenly stopped midair, only to come rushing down into their direction. Like bullets out of a minigun, the rain of death she had brought upon them made sure to leave no survivors. No one of them had managed to escape in time.

"We are not done yet, damned queen! Prepare yourself!" The pink haired queen finally had the time to look for the source of the voice, now that she wasn't busy having to keep enemies at bay. A tall, bulky man in a void armor stood on the hillside that led to the valley the rest of her army was fighting in. Behind him, yet another division of Mananites stood strong to try and prevent her from regrouping with her own dear soldiers.

Apparently, the armor wielding man was some sort of general. At least that's what it looked like to her. He raised one arm high in the air, followed by bringing it down abruptly into her direction, signaling his men to storm into battle which they all did with a furious battle cry.

Inori merely watched the horde approach her with slight annoyance. From underneath the sleeves of her old, white Funeral Parlor uniform she had been captured with all this time ago, a long, sharp crystal blade suddenly emerged. Armed with one on each hand, she decided to swing them once before engaging the enemy without the slightest indication of fear. A bystander would have thought her to be crazy to willingly face an entire squad of at least 50 enemies all by herself. It was foolish and suicidal…at least it would have been for any normal person…which Inori was not, fortunately.

In fact, she was quick to show them that it had actually been them who had been foolish enough for choosing to pick a fight with her. As soon as both forces clashed, Inori commenced to effortlessly cut herself a path through the enemy's ranks. Gracefully she danced around her opponents, all while swinging her deadly weapons at their vitals. No void they directed at her could touch her, for she was too fast for their eyes and her crystals too hard for them to break. She was like an artist, elegantly swinging her blades around like brushes to paint the battlefield red with the color of her opponent's blood. An unstoppable angel, bringing justice over the forces of hell.

However…once the last foe finally fell dead to her feet and she was standing in the middle of a field of vanishing corpses, she couldn't help but look at her blood soaked hands and remember the ugly moments of her past. The time when she had still shared her body with Mana's twisted soul…a time she had used to black out every once in a while for no reason, only to awake to the very same picture she saw before her now. A place full of murder, filled with blood and her right at the center of it. She had not understood it at first…what it had been that had happened to her. She had felt helpless and had been terrified of herself. Only later, when she had learned that it had been Mana all along, who had controlled her from within, was it that she finally had understood.

And when Mana's soul had finally departed, defeated by Shu, Inori had thought to be the happiest girl in the world…for she had been free from that moment onward. No longer would the thoughts of someone else haunt her, ever. She was her own person now.

But looking down at herself and also witnessing the gruesome sight that surrounded her, she just felt like nothing had changed after all. She may have at long last been freed from Mana's grasp, but in a way she could still be regarded as a…

"…monster…" Inori immediately turned around to the source of the unfamiliar voice with her blades ready to strike, only to see a cowering man lying in front of her. He trembled like a leaf and had his eyes wide open and filled with tears from fear. In his hand, he had held a void in form of a simple spoon. It could by no means be called a weapon, let alone a useful tool, yet it was all the man had to protect himself with. He had probably been completely aware of the fact that it was utterly pointless to even think it could help him in any way, but chose to at least try it anyway. What else could he have done in his situation?

The hostility that had faintly been visible in the queen's eyes was quick to vanish and be replaced by pity as she realized that it was yet another civilian that was lying at her feet. The very reason why Mana's army was three times bigger than hers, was that Mana forced everyone to fight, figuring that even people with weak non-combat voids were still more useful as cannon food rather than remaining at her base, doing nothing.

Inori knew that there was no danger coming off of the civilian, so she lowered her weapons, which crumbled apart right after that. She then turned around and walked away without a word, leaving the man shocked, yet relieved.

His relief was rather short lived, though, as his body got impaled by yet another crystal. The queen turned around in surprise when she realized that, only to see the body of the man already perishing under the crystal curse of this world. Inori couldn't understand how this could have happened…she hadn't called forth another crystal, so why did he…

Her expression turned somewhat grim as soon as realization struck her. "Mana…"

Indeed, out of a nearby crystal structure, Mana came, looking proud as ever with her beautiful violet-red dress adorned with crystal ornaments. On her head, purple crystals were representing a crown. It pretty much was the same look she had had when she had last attempted to end the world to recreate it anew. Slowly, she walked up to Inori and came to a halt a few meters in front of her, all while smirking at her in utter ridicule.

"So we meet again, usurper _queen,_ if you can even be called one in the first place. Just look at you, being covered in all this gory stuff. It would be more befitting to call you the monster you truly are, no?"

Inori narrowed her eyes in a defiant way. "It doesn't matter what people think I am. I know who I am. I am me. And you are nothing to me anymore."

"Cocky words from a mere puppet. But in the end, you will have to see that you are nothing without me. You were created to be my vessel. And now that we are both stuck in this realm, you have no purpose anymore. There is no meaning to your existence, which is why you so desperately try to mimic mine."

"I am nothing like you…"

"Oh, aren't you? You were created after my image, have the same abilities as me, illegitimately crowned yourself queen and in the end, you also got rejected by Shu for the mere copy you are. Say, won't you just realize it already and put an end to your tragic self? It would make everything so much easier for both of us…" Mana said, sounding as if she was only trying to give Inori advice, while it was obvious she was just trying to get under her skin.

But Inori didn't let her get to her. She just kept her cool and shook her head slowly. "You are wrong. I was not rejected, I chose to go."

"You keep telling yourself that, girl. You can't deny the facts, though. How long have we been here already? Years must have already come to pass…yet Shu never came for you. Face it, he has already forgotten all about you and lives a happy life without you. No one needs you. Just die already." Mana said with a sinister sounding giggle. "Come on, it's easy to end your own life. I can help you with that, what do you say?"

"I pity you, Mana. You keep wishing for my death because you think it would give you the thing you always longed for, yet would never attain. Shu will never choose you to be his queen, so you will never be able to receive his love. In the end, it is you whose existence is void. After all, there is no need for Eve if there is no Adam to bear the guilty crown for her."

That seemed like it had gotten Mana rather angry. With an evil glare she said: "What do you know about love…? You are manmade…everything about you is FAKE!"

"Fake or not…these feelings are mine. And I am happy to have received them from Shu. Nothing you do will be able to take them away from me."

"Well, let's see how much fun you will have with those stolen feelings once I am done with you!" Mana suddenly yelled angrily while releasing her void in a bright flash. "You destroyed everything! Shu was meant to be my precious, little king! How could you dare taking him away from his big sister who has loved him since the moment he was born? You of all people, who was meant to be nothing but an empty shell!"

Inori watched Mana taking hold of the gigantic broadsword that emerged from her chest, swinging it furiously once it had fully materialized in her hand. Inori herself let her twin blades grow back and prepared herself for the worst. She saw Mana come at her directly from the front, bringing her big sword up and planning to swing it down on Inori from over her head, but Inori managed to block the attack by forming an X with her crystal blades and thus catching the blade in between hers.

"Why?" Mana continued her rant. Her voice was full of rage and hatred, yet Inori could also hear a bit of sadness in them. "Why would he choose a fake like you over me? I had always been good to him. I loved him! I did everything for him…why did he reject me? Why?"

Inori tried very hard to push Mana back, but her void was extremely powerful. Even more so due to Mana being totally mad from anger and thus giving off a very strong killing intend. However, her blind rage made her full of openings, and so Inori used her chance to catch her opponent off-guard by kicking her in the stomach which immediately caused Mana to stumble backwards.

While Mana was busy regaining her balance, Inori decided to go over into the offence. With both her blades ready to strike, she tried to make a move, but was forced to retreat when she saw Mana point her left hand at her.

The kind queen's instincts proved to be right, as she barely managed to dodge a small amount of fist sized crystals in time, which shot out of the ground towards her. But her safe escape had come with a price, for Mana had used the additional time to regain her stance and close all the openings Inori could have used previously to get herself an advantage.

It wasn't all too bad, though, because the 7 meters worth of distance she had gained from her last dodging maneuver now allowed her to get a look at their surroundings instead of having to strictly focus on Mana all the time. A huge crystal with the height of at least 20 meters directly behind Mana caught her attention and while the evil queen was busy preparing her next attack, Inori merely pointed her hand towards the big crystal behind her enemy, followed by a movement that looked like she was grabbing and pulling something invisible towards her.

The response of the crystal structure wasn't one she had to wait long for. Almost immediately the tall tower-like formation started to bend in her direction. Only slowly at first, but gaining more and more momentum the more it tilted itself horizontally and got pulled down by the forces of gravity. Mana remained totally oblivious to that until the moment she happened to see its shadow growing on the ground around her.

The mad queen only turned around in shock and commenced to swing her sword at the falling object that was now in front of her. The shockwaves her blade created every time she swung it, effortlessly cut through the crystal structure and thus created many small chunks that fell towards her, instead of one massive one. The moment she had achieved that, she used her queen powers to let crystals grow extremely fast beneath her feet. The momentum she gained from these crystal rocks which shot out from the earth, made her launch herself high into the air, allowing her to perform high and fast jumps from one falling boulder to the next by endlessly repeating that tactic. That way she was successfully avoiding the danger of being crushed underneath of tons of crystals.

A frown showed up on Inori's face once she realized that Mana was about to escape the fate of getting smitten by a hair's length. She couldn't let that happen, so she tried to assume direct control of the falling pieces by pointing her hands at them and concentrating really hard. Some of the parts of the broken crystal started to change the direction they were falling into according to Inori's will. Some were moving away from Mana, causing her to miss her jumps, while others were directly flying towards her, apparently trying to smash into her.

It was unfortunate, however, that Mana was very agile and managed to either dodge the controlled chunks, or cut them with her void, effectively changing their course and thus putting herself out of harm's way. She eventually managed to dodge enough crystals, to safely land on the ground again, where she immediately started to run towards Inori. And not without sending some shockwaves from her sword along the way, too.

The kind queen dodged the first few waves by ducking, followed by a well executed dodge roll. When she noticed Mana coming nearer, she launched herself in the air with the same method her opponent had used earlier. Like an eagle she looked down on her prey with her blades ready for the kill. Mana had only time to look up in puzzlement, before realizing Inori dashed down on her from above, faster than she could have sent another shockwave into her direction.

But Inori's quick execution move that had been meant to behead her enemy, had ended in failure, since Mana had hid herself behind a crystal wall in the last second, resulting in the kind queen's twin blades to cut through hard crystal material, instead of her enemies throat. The protective wall perished and behind it was Mana, grinning at Inori menacingly. And since both queens were in melee range yet again, they both resumed their deadly dance of blades with none of them really getting close at harming the other. It seemed like their skills were even matched.

The battle could have possibly gone on for all eternity if it hadn't been for both of them suddenly noticing a new presence directly above them. Upon looking up, they were able to spot a certain brown haired king closing in on them in high speed with Ayase's void shining brightly on his feet, as well as Yahiro's shears readily lying in his right hand. Mana managed to jump back just in time to avoid getting hit by the razor sharp shears which buried themselves deep into the ground instead. Both queens just stared at the man in front of them in utter disbelief and shock. All while he just pulled out the shears again, cursing silently.

"Damn, I missed."

"Shu!" Both girls shouted in unison. The one apparently not less shocked to see him than the other was.

However, the initial shock eventually left. Mana was quicker to come back to her senses and visibly cheered up at the sight of him. Her mad expression filled with killer intend was suddenly replaced by a kind and caring smile from one second to the next.

"Shu, you finally came! You came for your big sister! I am so happy!" She said with teary eyes, smiling brighter than the sun on a wonderful spring morning.

Shu's expression, however, remained cold and distant. When he saw her coming closer with her arms spread to readily embrace her long lost, missing brother, he just warningly pointed his shears at her.

"Stay where you are or else I will have to use this on you. Don't make the mistake of thinking I would show only a second of hesitation…"

To his relief, Mana really did stop. With her eyes wide from surprise for hearing such harsh words directed at her from out of his mouth.

While Mana was busy gulping down her disappointment in Shu's reaction, Inori used the chance to let her crystal blades disappear once again and quickly put her arms around Shu from behind, as if she would fear he would go again if she wouldn't hold onto him hard enough.

"Shu…Shu…Shu!" She called his name over and over again, burying her face deep into the thick cloth of his coat. She sounded awfully relieved, like she had just woken up from a nightmare to find herself inside one of her best dreams. Well, it wasn't like Shu couldn't relate to that. He felt very much the same. Just hearing her saying his name in that sweet, melodious voice of hers was enough to fill his heavy heart with happiness again. This was just like one of his happy dreams…only that this time it was real. It had to be real, right? He was sure he wouldn't be able to stay sane if, by some sick and twisted joke by fate, he would wake up in his room right now. Blind, crippled and most of all: without Inori. It would kill him.

He could see Mana getting angry at the sight of him and Inori…but only for a second before she vanished behind a crystal wall that grew out of the ground all of a sudden. Inori had created a dome around her and Shu, just to not have her evil counterpart ruin their reunion. Outside, they could still hear Mana yell at them, but it was pretty muffled, so it was easy for them to block her out for now and completely focus on each other.

The king was quick to use the opportunity to slowly turn around and return the hug Inori was giving him. A nostalgic feeling befell him once he held her in his arms again for the first time in five years. He was still able to recognize her old, wonderful scent even under the heavy smell of blood and sweat that clung to her. She was covered in all sorts of dirt from her battle and still he thought that there was nothing more beautiful in the world than her. To him she was simply perfect, no matter the circumstances.

"You know…I have been wishing for this moment ever since I lost you. I had this scenario played out in my head countless times, but now that it actually happens right in front of me…I don't even know what to say…" He said with a soft and embarrassed chuckle. How utterly lame of him. He had rehearsed their reunion in his dreams over a dozen times, but all the things he had previously thought he would say felt like they had been blown away by the overwhelming happiness he felt right now. He couldn't think of anything but how glad he was for this very moment.

"You don't have to say anything." Inori replied softly while leaning against his chest, smiling. "I am just glad you came for me."

"I will always come for you, no matter where you are…no matter the cost." He answered her honestly, before giving her an apologizing look. "I am just so sorry that I came this late…"

She slowly shook her head at that. "My hope for your return gave me the strength to carry on. I would have kept waiting forever if I had to."

"You won't have to wait any more. I am here and I am not going to leave you again. Just promise me that you will do the same, alright?" Was all he asked of her with a kind and somewhat pleading smile. Inori didn't even hesitate for a second to give him a cute nod.

"I will stay by your side. Forever."

That was enough to make him the happiest man in the world. Those simple words had probably been more than he could have ever asked for. And for the love of god, he would make sure to treasure them. He wouldn't allow anyone to stand between them anymore, no matter who it was. Which reminded him…

"I guess that leaves us with only one thing to do then, which is dealing with Mana." He thought out aloud while sending an evil glare into the direction he had last seen his sister in. Inori's expression darkened, too.

"She's very strong, Shu. And dangerous." She said, looking at him with eyes full of worry, but Shu just gave her a reassuring smile.

"I know, but so are you. And this time, you won't have to fight alone anymore. She doesn't stand a chance against both of us. I will need more than Yahiro's shears, though." He realized with a frown before looking back at her again. Raising his right hand slowly, he asked politely: "May I?"

"It has always been yours to take, Shu." She told him with a smile while taking his hand with both of hers and guiding it towards her chest. "Please use it."

"With pleasure." He grinned and activated the power of kings that rested in his hands. When the all-too-familiar glowing hole in Inori's chest appeared again in front of his now red eyes, he simply couldn't wait any longer to let his right hand reach into it to get a hold on her beautiful soul. An unbelievable surge of power shot up his arm when he finally wrapped his fingers around it. His void allowed him to see into her heart, yet he didn't even need to take a look to understand the person in front of him. He already knew her strengths and weaknesses, her light and darkness. And he loved everything about them. Her burden was one he would always willingly take from her to carry it around on his shoulders, as she would with his. That he was sure of.

What he eventually pulled out from her seemed like a long crystal rock, but as soon as he held it up into the air, it immediately got shrouded in a bright and beautiful light that formed the rock in his hands into the powerful long sword he was so familiar with. The enormous level of genomic resonance it released upon taking form was enough to let the crystal dome around them start to fall apart. And no one other than Mana was there to greet them with a look mixed with anger and disbelief. Especially once she saw how Shu held Inori in his left arm while holding her void in his right, both of them glaring at her with determined eyes. The brown haired king directed the tip of the sword at Mana in a threatening way.

"Prepare yourself for we won't hold back on you."

"But…but, Shu! Don't you recognize me? It's me! Your dear sister!" She desperately tried to reach him, only to see his glare becoming even colder.

"You are NOT my sister!" He yelled at her, causing her to back off. He then looked down in sadness, sounding calm again. "In fact, I don't even know anymore if you ever were. I would like to think that you had been my sister until the moment you first died on lost Christmas, but recently I started to get doubts about that, too. I started to ask myself: When was it that Mana stopped being herself and became the crazy being known as Eve?' Was it once GHQ resurrected you? Was it when you first awakened on Lost Christmas? Was it once you had touched that cursed meteorite that fell on Japan so long ago? Or even straight from the moment you were born? Did I ever get to know my sister before she got turned into Eve, or did I never have a sister to begin with? I just don't know…" He said, shaking his head in what seemed to be a mixture of disappointment and unhappiness.

"What are you talking about? I have always been myself! Well, aside from the time I was stuck in that _failure_ 's body…" Mana said while sending off a glare that reeked of disgust towards Inori when she mentioned a failure. Inori merely returned the glare.

"Which is exactly the reason why I have come to love Inori and not you." Shu only replied harshly, not caring if he hurt her feelings since she obviously didn't care at all for his and Inori's. "She is the exact opposite of you."

The mad queen in front of them tried to wave his words off with a nervous laugh. "Come on…this isn't funny, Shu. I know you aren't really choosing that fake over me, right?"

"I am afraid I just did." Her face became twisted with anger once again when she heard that.

"Why? Why would you choose someone who was made in my image over me, who is the original? I have always loved you, even before that puppet came to life and was able to understand what those fake feelings of hers meant! Don't get yourself blinded by her pretty eyes and those false words she says to you. Nothing of it is true…how could it be when everything about her is artificial?"

"Funny for you to say that, because I heard you chose me to be Adam even before I was born. Did your love for me start then? If so, wouldn't it be you who got yourself blinded by false feelings caused by Eve? After all, you fell for someone you didn't even know just because of the madness you inherited from that cursed meteorite you found. This sure gets me thinking. Isn't it merely Eve's doing that makes you love me? Wouldn't you call that fake feelings, since they aren't even yours to begin with?" he asked and looked at her completely emotionless like he was simply stating facts, nothing more.

Mana for her part looked completely taken aback by that claim. She backed off slightly all while shaking her head in denial. "No…you are wrong…I may be Eve, but that's just a title. There is no other consciousness inside me. I am me! Mana!"

"Maybe, but even if that theory of mine is wrong, you never really showed me much of that love of yours. All you kept doing was hurting me. Forcing me into the role of Adam, trying to destroy the world, hurting Inori, making all the people in this realm fight each other for no reason at all…do you think I wanted all that? To see the person who I once considered my sister do all these horrible things? Do you think I enjoy having to kill you over and over again like it isn't a big deal for me, just to stop your madness? Admit it…deep down you actually hate me, don't you? Because only someone who utterly hates me would continuously try to break my heart like that."

"No, Shu…you got it all wrong…I…" Mana tried to justify her actions but obviously found herself at a loss of words. Shu didn't even give her time to think as he continued to talk.

"On the other side, there is Inori, who always stood by my side. She believed in me, supported me, cried for me, gave her life for me. There is no one else in the world who would have gone as far for me as she did, and you honestly have the nerve to call her feelings fake? You and Da'ath never understood a single thing about her. Yes, she may have been created to be your vessel, but she has grown to be far more than that. And no matter what she may have started as, she is human now. That's more than I can say for most of the people I know…including you. You want to call other people monsters? Then you better start with yourself."

Shu's harsh words paired up with the cold look he directed at Mana, visibly broke the girl in front of him. Her eyes became hollow and got hidden by the light pink hair which started to cover her face once she looked down in what seemed to be disappointment and hurt. Her shoulders also sunk slowly, letting the broadsword in her hands touch the ground carelessly. The words which eventually escaped her lips were quiet and sounded weak…barely audible.

"You are mean, Shu. It may be true that I haven't always made the right decisions, but that doesn't mean I loved you any less than that fake next to you claims to do. I always cared about you…yet you say such harsh things to your big sister. You are the worst, Shu. Maybe I spoiled you too much in the past. It may be time to teach you a lesson. Bad boys need to be punished, right? As your older sister it is my responsibility to make sure my little brother behaves well. Especially if he wants to be my king someday…"

"I will NEVER be your king, Mana. Nothing you will ever do will make me change my mind. It's over for you. Just give up and accept reality." The king demanded of her, only to make her snap at him.

"Accept it? How am I supposed to do that? I lived all my life for the moment we would climb the throne together. It is our fate! I chose you to be king and made you who you are today! Do you think it was mere coincidence for you to get the guilty crown? I MADE her give it to you." She pointed at Inori furiously. "I ensured that nothing would go wrong…but you…you don't understand anything!"

Shu noticed how there was something else starting to appear in those hollow eyes of hers. At first he thought it was anger and hatred, but it felt far worse than that. It was pure cold bloodedness, paired with a very unfitting smile on her face. It was an unnerving sight and, to be honest, the king felt scared by her. It was a side his sister had never shown him before. He felt like looking into the face of a crazed serial killer. Was that it? Had Mana finally lost it completely?

"This is bad…" Inori seemed to share the same thought as Shu did.

"Sorry, I suppose I got carried away and said too much." The king said nervously with a gulp while taking a look over his shoulder back at Inori.. "Well, there is no backing off now. You ready?"

His pink haired queen let her crystal blades grow back in the blink of an eye and nodded determinedly. Once he had seen that, he turned around to Mana again and readied Inori's void in his hands with a grim expression.

"Let's do this, then."

The evil queen in front of them also lifted her weapon and sent them a menacing grin.

"You think you can choose a different queen from me? Very well, all I have to do then is teach you a lesson by completely destroying her. I will put her into so much pain that she will be BEGGING me to kill her…and you will watch me do it. Maybe then will you understand that going against your big sis was the wrong decision. If I can't be your queen, NO ONE else will ever be!" She yelled the last part at him and then started to run into their direction with her weapon drawn and ready in her hands.

"Here she comes!" Shu and Inori prepared themselves for the attack to counter it, only to realize that said attack would not happen.

"Please wait, Mana."

When the voice of another old acquaintance reached their ears, they all stopped their actions and looked over to the direction they had heard the disturbance come from. What they saw was an all-too familiar man in Shu's age, holding a rifle-like void that was directed at the king and his queen. All while slowly closing in on them with big, yet careful, steps.

"Don't interfere, Triton. You said I could get my revenge today if we followed your plan. You promised me I could kill the fake that stole my brother from me!" Mana spat angrily at him, obviously not happy about his suggestion of backing down.

Gai gave her a patient nod with closed eyes. "Yes, I did. But that was before I knew that Shu would be here as well. I am afraid that the risk of you dying in this battle is too high under these circumstances." He said with his usual calm and collected voice as he stood in front of them with his familiar blond hair and blue eyes, apparently having lost his albino traits during the process of evolution. The only thing that actually reminded them of his Da'ath appearance instead of his old Funeral Parlor look, was the lack of his dark uniform. He still wore the white Antibodies/Da'ath coat from back then. It was like old-Gai had merged with new-Gai, making him radiate both, a friendly, as well as a hostile aura. Quite a bizarre sight…

Mana only smirked once she had heard him state his worries. "Then why don't you join me as my loyal knight? Let us play together again, like we once used to. Maybe we will succeed in bringing Shu back to his senses?"

"I would rather see you retreat to safety now, but you are the queen. If you insist, I will fight alongside you." They heard Gai sigh slightly, followed by looking at Shu and Inori coldly. "Since I vowed to free Mana and my last attempt at doing so obviously ended in failure, I think it is clear on which side I am standing right now, no?"

"I wasn't expecting you to switch sides in the first place. Nor would I have felt comfortable with it, to be honest." Shu answered him with a serious look.

Apparently, Shu's answer amused the blond man. A soft chuckle was to be heard. "Hm, and here I thought you would try to reason with me."

"What is there to reason with you? You were willing to sacrifice the world for Mana. What could I possibly offer you to change your mind? I think we are way beyond that."

"So you understand. I must admit, you have grown in many ways since our last meeting, Shu." Gai said with an approving smile.

But the king just shook his head to that. "No, I've just grown up. I am no longer that naïve high school boy you could use however you liked. I make my own decisions now, as do you. And I think it has been clear for a while now that we both have decided to be enemies. For one reason or the other."

"Indeed, so it seems. But if your reason for opposing us, is to save the world, then you have made a huge mistake to come here. After all, you have just brought us the key to leave this place. If I were to take the void genome from you, I could lead Mana out of here once again. Do you understand that?"

"Of course, but I would sooner see the world burn than letting Inori stay here with you. I am more than willing to take this risk. Besides, as far as I can see, WE are the ones having an advantage here. After all, all you have to fight us with is your void. It can do nothing but forcing voids to reveal themselves, so how could it possibly aid you in this fight?" Shu stated a legitimate point. He had his void genome, Inori and Mana their queen powers…next to those, Gai's power seemed to be quite insignificant.

"I can't deny that you have a point there." Gai agreed. "My void isn't nearly as powerful as the void genome, but getting shot by it still hurts. Trust me, you don't want to be hit by this thing."

Shu felt Inori tensing up next to him when Gai had mentioned that. She must have been hit a couple of times during those 5 years of his absence. So Gai must have been telling the truth, then.

"Fair enough. I will have to take you out first, then." Shu decided, but couldn't do anything to make this words come true, since Mana had already leapt forward to swing her void at him.

"I won't let you ignore me any longer!" She said angrily while letting her void come down at him from above. Shu was quick to parry the attack with Inori's void and started to push Mana back since he clearly had more strength.

"Geez, you always were the one who always wanted to come first…at least that never changed." The king grunted while driving her back.

"Then you surely also remember that I won't stop before I get what I want." She added with an evil smirk, followed by a quick upward move with her left hand.

"Shu, watch out!" Inori suddenly yelled and countered Mana's movements with one of her own. The king cursed mentally when he saw spiky crystals rapidly growing out of the ground right next to him, threatening to stab him with their pointy ends. Luckily, though, their growth stopped halfway and reversed itself, thus shrinking the crystals again in order to neutralize their threat to Shu. The king immediately understood what the cause for that may have been, when he saw Inori looking like she was busy pushing something invisible back into the ground with both her hands. And since he also saw her struggling with keeping the crystals small, he quickly decided to retreat by jumping out of the way, allowing his queen to finally rest. Mana's crystals grew to their intended sizes once Inori had stopped interfering, but, of course, caused no harm anymore, since Shu was long gone.

Meanwhile, Gai had pointed his rifle at Inori, who had been wide open, but found himself unable to shoot. The reason for that was the uncomfortable feeling of the tip of Yahiro's shears being pressed against his back. When he dared to take a look over his shoulder at his attacker, he wasn't really surprised to see a second Shu standing there, looking coldly at him.

"I told you I would aim for you first." He said.

"I see, so you used Tsugumi's void beforehand to create a copy of yourself. Quite clever of you." Gai combined while smiling approvingly. "You came here prepared."

"I won't take chances when fighting strong foes, so of course I would. I wanted to use this clone to sneak up on Mana and kill her from behind, but I guess I will have to use it on you now." Clone Shu explained calmly while preparing to end Gai's life with the shears. Strangely, the blond man didn't seem to mind at all. He just smirked cockily and slowly shook his head.

"I won't say that this was a bad plan. On the contrary…it was pretty good, but you are disregarding a crucial weakness in it which will lead to its inevitable failure." Gai then suddenly turned around and elbowed the clone right in the face before it even had a chance to react. The second Shu just stared at Gai wide eyed when he realized the blond man had already pointed his rifle at him during the time he had needed to regain his own balance.

"Which is the simple fact that you will have to control the clones mentally. They may be good in providing additional manpower, but they will never be able to react as fast as the original would, because there is always a little bit of delay with every command you give to it." And with that, he pulled the trigger, causing the clone to stumble over and fall on his back. Dead. It vanished soon after that in a bunch of silver threads.

"Shit, so much for my assassination attempt…" The real Shu cursed once he realized that his clone didn't respond anymore. He was busy dodging crystals that kept getting shot out of the ground beneath him, while Mana herself was busy trying to slash at Inori with her sword. And then there was also Gai, who had his rifle pointed at Inori again now that the clone was killed. He had to react quickly, so he summoned Ayase's void to him and used it to dash into the blond haired man's direction as fast as he could.

"Oh no, you don't!" Were his words before smashing his broadsword at him. It only caused a small crater to appear on the ground, exactly where Gai used to stand. The ex-king had jumped away in the last second and was now aiming his rifle at Shu. However, he missed every shot at the true king, because Shu had merely taken off into the air again and performed one barrel roll after the other in order to make him a harder target.

When Gai's rifle stopped working because it needed a moment to recharge, Shu decided that this short period of time was all he needed. Switching from the defense to the offense, he stopped in midair and sent a couple of shockwaves at Gai's direction by swinging Inori's void. The blond haired man on the ground had no other choice but to dodge roll behind a field of crystals to seek cover from them.

Meanwhile, things were looking grim for Inori. She was exchanging blows with Mana, but had obvious difficulties in keeping up with her. The mad queen was in a frenzy and wanted to desperately see blood, _Inori's_ blood to be precise. She appeared to be stronger and faster than before for some reason and the kind queen wasn't sure how long she would be able to stand her ground. Especially since she had kept using her powers far too much already and was starting to grow tired.

"You are mine!" Mana laughed evilly the moment she managed to break one of Inori's blades with her own sword. Inori tried to parry the next attack with only one of her blades, but knew that it wouldn't be enough to withstand the powerful void of her enemy.

"Inori!" She suddenly heard Shu call for her. A quick glance into his direction, allowed her to see that he was closing in on them in high speed with his sword ready for the kill. Mana, of course, saw him as well, but when she tried to dodge the attack, she found herself restrained by crystal vines which had tangled themselves around her feet. She immediately shot a knowing and hateful look at Inori.

"You little…" Her last attempt at slashing at her was interrupted by a shockwave sent by Shu's sword, followed by the real hit with the actual sword as soon as he had come into melee range. Mercilessly he leapt at her with all his might, causing her to get knocked into the air harshly and landing again on the hard ground after a few seconds of flying through the air. She kept lying there for a moment, bleeding slightly from her left abdomen where she had been hit by the sword. When she tried to stand up again, she found the tip of Inori's void at her throat with Shu glaring down at her with cold, yet also somewhat sad eyes.

Inori saw Shu standing over his sister in triumph and was about to sigh in relief, when she heard someone behind them. Turning around, she happened to catch a glimpse of Gai, who was aiming his rifle at Shu from behind some crystals. Just when he was about to shoot, Inori let the crystals, he was hiding behind of, fall on him and thus buried him alive under tons of heavy chunks.

When she had come closer to make sure she really got him, she was surprised to see that he was still alive. Trapped under the crystals, she had made collapse on him, and his void out of reach. He lied there in his own blood, breathing heavily.

"…Inori…" She heard him say, despite all the pain he obviously had to go through at the moment. He didn't even attempt to get his void for he already knew it was lying too far away from him. And even if it hadn't, he probably wouldn't be able to still use it anyway.

"You left me no choice, Gai…" She quietly said to him with a sorrowful expression. "You tried to hurt Shu…"

He gave of a sound that could have been an attempt at chuckling. She wasn't exactly sure about that. "…Shu…? What about you...? I had Mana…torment you…over all these years. I thought it would keep…her thoughts away from the apocalypse…and Shu. I wanted to…give her some peace…of mind. Don't you hate me…for that…?" He said weakly. Inori only shook her head.

"You only did what you thought was right. Like when you woke me all those years ago and allowed me to become the person I am today. I could never hate you, because everything started with you. I am grateful."

The blood soaked man in front of her started to laugh, but ended up mostly coughing.

"You are a good person, unlike me…If I were you, I could have never…forgiven someone like me. You deserve…to be saved. Go and be happy with Shu…and make sure…you never show up here…again…"

Inori gave him a nod. "I will. This is good-bye, Gai." With a swift motion, she cut his void in half and thus sentenced the man in front of her to death. Not that he would have lived for long in that state in the first place.

"This is…for the best." Gai said with a heavy sigh while his body was about to perish. "Do you mind…singing one last song...for me?" He saw her nod and kneeling next to him to be with him in his last moments with her.

" _The blooming wildflower_

_Ah, please tell me_ "

She sang gently while comfortingly stroking his long, blond and blood soaked hair. The man allowed himself to close his eyes and enjoy the song as he slowly crystallized and broke apart. Inori only watched as he turned into lots of small pieces that vanished into thin air, still singing.

" _Why do people fight_

_And hurt each other?"_

She sadly looked at the sport Gai has just disappeared from her very eyes and stopped singing, since no one was there to hear the rest of the song anymore. This should be, and hopefully had been, the last time she would ever see that man, who had given her the opportunity to have her own life. In a way, he had been sort of like a father to her. Or at least the closest thing to a father she would have ever had. She really hoped he will somehow find happiness here with Mana, once she finally left this place together with Shu. There really wasn't anything else she could have done for him.

Shaking her head, she decided to leave that depressing thought behind her and turned around to head back to Shu. Only once she was gone, did a small, beautiful crystal flower grow on the place Gai had died. Inori wasn't sure if he would ever find it, nor if he would care, but if he did, then he would know that she at least had cared, too.

Back at Shu, things looked similar to the scene with Inori and Gai. He still held his sword at Mana's throat, who for her part was lying down in defeat. There was nothing she could have done in time to fight Shu off, before he would have been able to end her life. She was completely at his mercy.

"It's over, Mana. You lost." He calmly said while looking down at her with seriousness, but also pity.

"It's never over, Shu…" Mana replied with a bitter smile. "Not until you accept me as your queen. Don't you understand?"

"You are the one who doesn't understand. I have already chosen. You are not and will never be my queen. I am sorry, but that's just how it is."

Mana sighed with closed eyes. Shu found it to be quite unbelievable how fast her mood was able to change in the shortest periods of time. Maybe she calmed down because she knew she had no way to escape…? Or maybe it was just because Inori was nowhere to be seen…

"You are right, Shu. I don't understand. You could be and do everything you ever wished for if only you would stop rejecting me. You would become the king of our children. The children we would lead through evolution. They need us, Shu. Or else they will never find their way to happiness. We were meant to lead them, protect them, and reign over them. It is our destiny."

"If I accepted destiny, I would still sit in my dark room and weep in self-pity. No, I choose my own destiny. You are wrong to believe that becoming your king would grant me everything I could ever wish for. If anything, it only shows how little you know me. I don't want to lead or reign over anyone. I never did. I just want to have a happy future with Inori and everyone else. Tell me, does becoming your king give me that?"

Mana gave him a frown. "You just had to mention the only thing in the world I couldn't possibly ever give you. Why does it always have to be 'Inori this' and 'Inori that'…? Getting rejected was bad enough, but getting rejected because of someone who was meant to be my vessel is just the icing on the cake. Do you hate your big sister so much, that you would continuously hurt her like that? Throw her away for a simple toy?"

"Stop calling her that already." He told her with narrowed eyes and a sharp voice. His anger faded, though, and pity returned on its stead once again. "If it means anything to you…there is a part of you I could never hate. It is the part that I remembered as the one that was my sister. The caring, sweet, older sister you were to me before all this. Remember the good times we had back when we were still kids? I do, and if I am really honest with you…then I have to say that I really loved you then. As much as a kid could love anyone, anyway."

He saw tears in his sister's eyes. If they were tears of happiness or sadness…he wasn't exactly sure. "Then why don't we just return to that time and forget everything else…? We could be happy again, like we were during the last summer we had spent together." She hopefully looked up at him with a kind smile, only to let it all shatter when she saw the king slowly shake his head in disagreement.

"I am afraid that isn't possible, Mana. We aren't kids anymore. All the things you have done until now…I just can't ignore them. You have changed too much from being the sister I once loved. Even too much for me to still recognize you as my sister. I look down at you and see the face of someone who looks like you, yet is a total stranger to me. Even calling you Mana needs quite some overcoming from my side. Which leaves me with no other choice but to do this…" He saw the evil queen's eyes grow wide once she realized he was lifting his sword for the killing strike.

"No, Shu! Don't do this to me! Big sis still loves you!" She begged for her life, which only made killing her harder for Shu. Why does it always have to be so hard? Then again, it probably was better that way. He feared the day when he would finally get used to kill people and prayed for it to never come, for it would only mark the day of his humanity's downfall.

He took another look at her pleading eyes, then brought the sword down at her. However, before it could hit her, he showed hesitation, letting hope appear in the mad girl's eyes once more.

"I…I knew it! You still care for me, despite all your harsh words! I am so happy, Shu! Let's just stop this act and get together. We can still make this work somehow, I just know it." She said to him with an excited sounding voice and a bright, yet nervous smile. Well, her nervousness was understandable, considering she still had the tip of a huge blade only millimeters in front of her face.

Shu for his part just looked down at her with a troubled expression. His hands were shaking slightly as he tried to overcome the kindness in his heart that held him back. With a heavy sigh, he looked up to the empty sky as if he could find some help there. From god, perhaps, if there really ever was one in the first place. But, as ever, nothing happened. He was on his own.

Or maybe not.

"Shu…" He suddenly felt a hand softly being placed on his right shoulder. Inori had returned to his side and shared an understanding look with him. "Let me do it." She offered him, knowing that he was struggling with the deed. But Shu only shook his head at her.

"No…you have gotten your hands dirty enough already…I won't stand by to watch you do it again when I can prevent it. I came to shoulder part of your burden, not pass mine up to you. This is something I will have to do myself." He told her while still looking up to the sky. His queen only gave him a sad, yet understanding nod and stepped back to let him finish what he had started.

And so he lifted his sword again with a deep sigh. Never had it felt so heavy during the whole time he had used it before. Once he held it up high enough again, he couldn't help but take another look down at his sister, whose newfound hope had turned into fear once again.

"No, wait! Don't do it, Shu! Please stop!"

The king heard her beg, but wouldn't listen to it no more. With a loud yell, that could have been meant to express his inner struggle or was maybe just intended to drown out Mana's begging, he brought the blade down to end his sister's life. The evil queen instinctively tried to escape, but found her limbs to be restrained by yet another bunch of crystal roots, which had started growing around her as soon as Shu had made his move. Inori only closed her eyes slowly when the tip of the blade eventually pierced the mad girl's heart, and thus finally ended an everlasting struggle she had had to go through in all those years.

"Shu….don't….." were the last words they could hear Mana rattle at Shu, before her gaze became empty and her limbs motionless. The king felt tears coming out of his eyes and quickly attempted to wipe them away. He simply wasn't made for killing, especially if it meant killing someone he had once cared for…still, it had to be done. He had no regrets. Just sadness.

He and Inori watched Mana's corpse slowly crystallize, followed by breaking apart. What was different from all the times they had both witnessed that process already, was the fact that as soon as her corpse broke into pieces, it suddenly started shining brightly. The light was actually intense enough for them having to shield their eyes and turn away to not get blinded by it. Even the soldiers still fighting in the valley next to them happened to witness that bizarre sight of a pillar of light simply coming in existence from out of nowhere. It was enough to make them stop their meaningless struggle for a bit to look up and stare at it in confusion.

However, they couldn't see what Shu and Inori saw. In the middle of the light pillar, a small, glowing orb had magically appeared from the pieces of Mana's crystallized corpse. It floated there peacefully, before it suddenly started attracting countless crystal parts from its surroundings. They started whirling around the shining orb at first and then, once enough parts happened to have been collected, started to grow together around the orb to create a human sized cocoon. The light eventually died down, once the construction of the object had finally ended.

"Not wasting any time with starting her resurrection, I see." Shu figured once he touched the surface of the newly created cocoon. There was no heartbeat, yet, but the crystal was glowing brightly, indicating that it was very well active. He attempted to break the crystal, but found himself unable to cut it, even with Inori's void. "It's unbreakable, too."

"It should still take a while for her to revive, though." Inori tried to see the bright side to it.

"How long will she be out? What do you think?" Shu found himself asking her with folded arms, still inspecting the cocoon in front of them. Inori only shook her head.

"I don't know. It varies from person to person and we can't measure time in here either."

"She's pretty strong, too, and we saw how fast she got a new cocoon. Her rebirth is probably this realm's number one priority right now…" Shu figured and bit his bottom lip with a worried expression, before turning to Inori again, offering her his hand and summoning Ayase's void back to him. "Let's hurry, then. I don't want to kill her again."

He saw her nod approvingly, followed by walking up and taking his hand. He then picked her up with both his arms and lifted off immediately to not waste another second of their valuable time.

-GC-

"You saw that light? Bet that was Mana finally killing Inori! I told you guys she would win!"

"And how the hell would an idiot like you know that? It could have as well been the other way round with Inori being victorious!"

"Who the hell said it had to mean either one's death in the first place?"

"And what else COULD it have been, smart ass?"

"The fuck did you just call me, asshole?"

The people back at the valley seemed to be confused. Many had stopped fighting for various reasons. May it have been their fatigue or their confusion over the light's appearance and its meaning. The ones, who were still fighting, did so because they disagreed on the other one's opinions about the light, their queens, or because they simply hated each other and thus didn't even need a reason to crack each other's skull open.

However, everything came to a halt when Shu landed in the center of the battlefield like a meteorite falling from the sky. Everyone just looked at him and Inori in amazement, once the dust had settled and revealed the royal couple as such. Inori's followers sighed in relief upon seeing her unharmed, while the Mananites grew restless as the suspicion about their queen's defeat started to become more and more legit with every second she didn't show up as well.

"Thank goodness…Queen Inori is safe!"

"What the hell? Wasn't Mana going to lure her away to kill her?"

"All hail Queen Inori!"

"Where the fuck is Mana!?"

They all yelled and cheered at the same time. Inori merely made a gentle upward movement with her right hand to let a giant, flat crystal ascend from the ground. It served her and Shu as some sort of stage, so everybody could see them and pay attention to them. When she thought it had grown high enough, she stopped the growth of the crystal and looked down at her audience.

"Quiet!" She suddenly said in a serious tone. Her voice was carried around through the whole valley by the crystals that surrounded it. Shu figured they worked like some kind of speakers. Like the ones you would use on concerts, bringing the voice of the singer to the huge amount of people who came to hear them sing. It would have seriously impressed him, if it weren't for the fact that he had pretty much already witnessed Inori controlling the growth of crystals at will. Nothing could really top that. Not even voice transmission through crystals.

What DID surprise him, though, was how everyone around them fell silent the instant Inori had spoken. Wow, that's what Shu would call respect. Not a single one dared to go against her. May it have been out of admiration for their queen or the fear of making an enemy queen angry and thus having to suffer her wrath. Apparently, some Mananites had experienced bad times with their queen and believed the same could happen with Inori. Unbeknownst to them, that Inori was nothing like Mana and would never treat people the same way the mad queen would have.

Once Inori had everyone's attention, she cleared her throat cutely and folded her hands in front of her in a royal manner to at least look like a queen when she was already addressed as such. Shu couldn't help but suppress a chuckle all while scratching his cheek awkwardly.

" _It doesn't matter how you present yourself if you are covered in so much blood in the first place, Inori."_ He thought somewhat amused, but let it go once his queen started to address the people.

"Clearly all of you must have witnessed the light that had been visible moments ago. As some of you may have already figured, it really did mark the death of a queen. And since I am still standing in front of you, I am sure you all understand who it was, that fell in battle." She calmly said. Her audience grew restless all of a sudden.

"Mana is dead? We won? Seriously?"

"What the hell is that girl talking about? She was supposed to be lured into a trap by Mana. How the hell could Mana have died if she was supposed to have the upper hand?"

"I can't believe this! Are you for real?"

"She is lying! Don't believe a word she says!"

Inori continued to speak. "Believe it, or don't. The truth remains unchanged. Mana lost the war, so here are my peace conditions to her remaining soldiers: I won't take Mana's territory over, so everyone who chooses to lay their weapons down and leave peacefully, will be allowed to do so, as long as they head back into Mana's territory and remain there. I do not care what you do there, as long as you do it there only. Entering my territory is strictly prohibited. You may accept these conditions and go, or you may refuse them and die. The choice is yours to make. I will kindly ask of my soldiers to assist me with the task of escorting the surrendering Mananites. Please avoid unnecessary blood spill if it can be avoided. That is all."

Shu had looked at her during this speech and was more than just taken a back. Seeing Inori suddenly handling the situation on her own and in such a professional way, was way more than he could have expected from her. He had known her for hardly ever speaking more than five sentences in a row in the past and now there she was, talking in front of countless people with the voice of authority.

But although this had been so unlike her, it was also clear that she didn't like her role at all, despite her being so good in it. He could see how she merely forced herself to look like a leader for her people's sake, who had asked her to be one. She, like him, had never chosen to be a leader herself, and merely did it to help out. Maybe she had even learned that off of him, when he tried to fit in the role of a leader. Good thing for her that she had also learned from his mistakes and didn't repeat them. He was very glad for that.

Suddenly, one of the Mana soldiers jumped up on the stage and turned to the people with a raised fist. His voice, however, wasn't transmitted via crystals, so only the people near him could actually hear him.

"Do not listen to that crap! She couldn't possibly have killed Mana! It must be a trick to make us retreat, but look at us! We still have the higher amount of soldiers! We can still win, if we only we stand up and fight! Come on, brothers! Raise your weapons! The battle isn't over!"

Inori simply stood there patiently, waiting for him to come to the point. When he finally did, he grabbed his whip-like void and swung it at the queen.

"For Mana!"

That was the moment Shu summoned Inori's void back into his hand and quickly swung it to cut the whip, before it could touch the pink haired woman. Both he and his queen watched in silence as the man who foolishly had attempted to attack Inori face on, died the crystal death in the blink of an eye.

"Who the hell is that guy? Did he just use multiple voids?"

"First he had this flying stuff, now that sword. And is that arm of his a void, too? How can he have so many voids?"

"I have never seen him, too. He can't possibly be a newcomer, right? We haven't had those in ages…"

Shu could hear the crowd mumble in confusion and shock. He figured that he might as well stand up and tell them, now that they all seemed so eager to know. Taking a few steps forward, he said:

"My name is Ouma Shu and I have come to put an end to this pointless war. Is there someone else out there, aside from the guy just now, who isn't happy with the queen's proposal? If that is the case, please come forth and let me hear your opinion on the matter. I am sure we can work something out. One way or the other. " He calmly said and looked around, rhetorically searching for people who might have wanted to disagree with them. "No? No one? All right, then I would ask the Mananites to commence dropping their weapons and try forming a line. Please make this work peacefully, since we surely can all agree on the fact that we have lost enough people today."

The people just looked at each other in bewilderment for a second, unable to fully comprehend the situation.

"Did he just say Ouma Shu?"

"The one the queen told us about?"

"That's him? He really came?"

"No way…Mana must have died because of him helping Inori…so it really is true…"

The royal couple watched as more and more Mananites dropped their voids and surrendered. With their morale completely lost, they raised their arms behind their heads in defeat and followed the orders of Inori's soldiers who drove them into big groups to escort them back into their territory like their queen had asked them to do. Occasionally, a couple of Mananites would still try to fight back, but eventually either got restrained or killed due to the lack of support from their comrades.

With this, the war was over.


	8. Heavy hangs the head that wears the crown

**8\. Heavy hangs the head that wears the crown**

The queen and her king oversaw the process of escorting the prisoners of war back into their home with patience and were eventually rewarded with the sight of the whole remaining enemy army returning to the dark and scary area of the realm from where they had originally come from. A couple of Inori's soldiers stayed at the border to keep watch, so no one would dare to return, while the rest gathered around their queen to march back home themselves. But not without cheering and singing songs because of the victory they had had to wait for all this time.

And while around them everyone was happy, sang and cheered, Inori allowed herself to finally rest a bit by leaning against Shu's shoulder tiredly as they walked back to the fortress. He for his part didn't mind at all and gently put an arm around her.

"You look like you could use some good night's sleep, huh?" He said jokingly with a big smile.

"I wish I could sleep. This world doesn't let me." She mumbled with closed eyes.

"You probably miss drinking tea, too." He added with a chuckle to which she nodded, albeit looking slightly annoyed.

"And onigiri, right?" Now she was visibly frowning at him.

"You are mean, Shu." She said with a pout. Well, she probably had a point. It wasn't very nice to mention food to someone who hasn't seen any for years.

The king just laughed amusedly. "Sorry, but seeing it from the bright side, you soon will be able to get all the things you had to pass on all this time."

That made her look up at him curiously. "Do you already have a plan?"

"Nah, but I found an expert who may have one. Hopefully."

"Expert? Who?"

That was the moment one of their guards interrupted their conversation to report something to Inori.

"Milady, I am terribly sorry to disturb, but I want to inform you that we have been followed by a suspicious looking man for quite some time now."

Inori gave him a confused look and then looked over her shoulder behind them to have a glimpse at the unknown man. Only to realize it was Keido, who was quietly following them with a couple meters worth of distance between him and her guards.

"Do you wish for us to send him off?" The guard asked her politely, only to see Inori shaking her head at him.

"No, let him come. He is my guest for today." She explained calmly. The guard nodded understandingly and went back to cheering and singing. Shu merely chuckled.

"The people who recognize him probably won't like that."

"They will, once he proves to know a way out."

"My thoughts exactly."

About what felt like a quarter hour later, they finally reached the walls of Inori's fortress. They were all granted immediate access by the guards, once they had confirmed that Inori was with them, which drastically sped up the process of entering the camp. Once inside, the guards all saluted to their queen and went off into different directions, probably planning to enjoy their hard earned and well deserved free time.

"Welcome back, Inori." It was Jun who was first to welcome them with a polite bow and a kind smile.

"It's good to be back. How long do you think you will need to let everyone assemble in the throne room?" She asked him.

"Not too long. Could be an hour or so. Why? Do you bring any good news?" He asked curiously while having a knowing look at Shu next to her.

"The best they have heard in all the time they have been here." Inori replied with a smile. Jun grinned happily and bowed to her, before taking his leave.

"I will make extra haste to let them come to you, then. If you will excuse me, milady."

The next who came rushing to them was Hare, who nearly jumped them and hugged them as hard as she could.

"Shu, Inori! You are back alive! Thank goodness! I was so worried!" She nearly cried. Shu only laughed while he and Inori awkwardly returned the hug.

"Everything went better than expected." He told her with a smile, but got a hit on the head for reasons he apparently had failed to understand.

"You idiot! Never run off like that so suddenly again! And what were you thinking lifting off in a flying ban area? You could have gotten shot down." She scolded him with her hands on her hips. He continuously bowed while saying "I am sorry, I am sorry!" countless times.

When she heard Inori softly giggle at the amusing scene, Hare decided to direct her anger toward the queen as well.

"You aren't off the hook, either, girl. I told you countless times to be careful when engaging Mana. And would you just look at you! You are covered in filth more than your guards are!"

Inori narrowed her eyes on her, looking slightly annoyed. "It's not that bad…"

"Yeah, that's because you can't see yourself. Quick, let's find yourself someone with a void capable of cleaning you up. You are way too pretty to walk around looking like that. Come on, let's go."

Shu laughed as he watched Hare drag Inori away. They might have looked annoyed and angry at first, but he saw their expressions turning into smiles and heard them giggle after that. Hare was just messing around again, cheering everyone up with that unique charm of hers. Man, was he happy to be reunited with them. He couldn't wait to bring them all back home.

"You might want to get yourself checked up, too, Keido." He finally said with a grin and turned around to the ex-leader of the now disbanded antibodies, who had stood in the back by himself. "You sure could use a shave and a shower if you asked me."

"Watch it, brat. I am a patient man, but some lines of mine are better off not getting crossed, you understand?"

"Hey, Shu! What are you standing around there for? Come with us! You could use some cleaning, too. And bring that old man Keido with you while you are at it." They could hear Hare calling from the distance. Shu couldn't help but snicker at that while Keido gave off a defeated and grumpy look.

"Hrmpf…"

-GC-

Sometime later, Shu wasn't exactly sure how much time had passed…probably one and a half hour or so, he was standing in the throne room he had visited earlier that day. Inori was next to him and kindly let a second throne appear next to hers for him to have a seat on. He wasn't sure if he really needed one, because he wasn't going to be king for long, but Inori insisted and wouldn't listen to his attempts at talking her out of it.

"The queen is quite as stubborn as her king is at times." Hare had only said to that, which made Jun and the head guard next to her snicker quietly. Shu only sighed in defeat and shyly took a seat on the throne Inori had created. Much to the queen's content, as it was indicated by her smile. While the royal couple sat on their thrones, Jun as the representative of the civilians stood next to Inori and Hare who was in charge of the medics in the infirmary stood next to Shu. There was also an unknown man in heavy armor standing near them. Shu's friends had told him that he was the head guard and kind of was in charge of every soldier who fought for Inori's side.

In front of them, there were hundreds of thousands of people, who had gathered in here as soon as they had heard their queen's wish to come here. Shu was told that every man, woman and kid in the whole camp was standing in front of them right now. Aside from the injured who had to rest in the infirmary and some guards who remained on the wall to keep watch, of course. Shu had known that Inori was in charge of a LOT of people, but seeing them all gathered together only made it so much clearer how many exactly she had to lead. He was even surprised about the fact that they all actually fitted into this room. Someone walked up to Jun and told him something, to which the young man only nodded in a pleased way and sent the man off. He then turned towards Inori and reported:

"Milady, everyone is here. You may start whenever you wish."

"Thanks. Before that, please give me your reports, everyone." Inori kindly asked off them. The first to comply was the head guard, who came forward, saluted and said:

"Yes. My men are keeping watch over the border to Mana's territory. They report no suspicious behavior from the Mananites for now. Apparently, they are all staying inside their territory like we have told them to. The guards we have posted near Mana's cocoon also report no notable changes so far. There is still no heartbeat, though the cocoon is starting to shine brighter." The man took a step back again and let Hare come forth.

"A total auf 173 patients were brought into the infirmary today both during and after the fight. 89 left already fully treated. 58 remain in the infirmary for recovery, 35 of which are still in critical condition, and 26 could not be saved in time." She reported calmly, seemingly used to the drill.

To be honest, Shu was quite surprised about those numbers at first. Not only was the number of patients pretty low compared to their population, but some of them also died, despite being brought here. It took him a moment to realize that most of the patients were actually soldiers and that most of them were more likely to either completely die in battle or come home unscratched. Simply because you wouldn't usually survive coming in contact with a void weapon. You could be considered lucky if you actually did. And then, there was also the fact that not everyone called a powerful healing void their own like Hare did. Some would naturally be a bit weaker and thus not efficient enough to heal the patient quickly and good enough for them to recover instantly or even survive. Hare probably could have saved everyone, but you couldn't expect her to keep healing them all. Not only was she merely one person who couldn't possibly split herself, she also grew tired from using her void for too long. So that pretty much explained those numbers.

Jun was the next to speak up.

"I've confirmed and recorded the deaths of about half a thousand soldiers today. Though that is a very large number compared to our usual battle statistics, it actually still is a good result if you considered the size of the opposing army this time. Plus, we actually managed to defeat the enemy queen, which already is a huge achievement by itself. Adding the losses of our soldiers today to the current amount of pending rebirths, we are currently awaiting the rebirth of 1853 people, of which at least 400 should return shortly, since they have been dead for quite some time now. This ends my report." He stated calmly and went back in line with a bow.

"Thank you very much." Inori replied to them with a nod and apparently took her time in digesting the information. Once she had thought it all over, she stood up and walked forward, clearing her throat. Jun motioned to the crowd who had kept mumbling until now, to get quiet, which they eventually did. Everyone stopped talking to each other and instead turned their attention forward where the queen was standing.

"Denizens of this realm,…" she started. Her voice was calm and not nearly loud enough that people would have heard her under normal circumstances, but luckily for her, the crystal dome that currently surrounded them all, transmitted her voice through the whole room once again."A lot has happened today, which I think you should know. As some of you may have already realized, there was a battle going on today. My brave soldiers and I went out to fight Mana's army who kept marching towards our home. There is no need for worry, though, since we were victorious once again in the end."

The people in front of her started to cheer happily and praised her name in unison. Shu couldn't help but smile proudly at Inori, who had managed to get loved and respected by so many people. Even the kids he could spot in the crowd were happily cheering for her. What a cute sight.

Suddenly, the head guard stood up and looked over to Inori to silently ask for permission to speak, which she granted him with a nod. He then turned to the people and added: "But that isn't all. This fight was special for many reasons. Not only did the enemy queen join the battle in person for the first time in all our time here, we also managed to defeat her!" He told them with a proudly raised fist. Everyone just stared at him in disbelief, followed by looking over to their queen to seek confirmation. When she answered them with a smile, the crowd went wild again. Now cheering even louder…some of them even started dancing in joy.

The next to speak to the crowd was Jun, who apparently didn't even need to ask for permission. He humbly found his place next to Inori and said:

"And that STILL isn't all, because I bet you all are quite curious about how our dear queen managed to achieve such a magnificent victory over Mana when both of them were rumored to be equally strong." Indeed, people started to look at each other questioningly. Some randomly started to shout:

"Because our queen is awesome!"

"I bet some Mananites fell into Mana's back because not even her followers could stand her anymore!"

The crowd started to burst out into laughter, to which Jun only replied with a grin:

"Good guesses, but I knew you guys would never get it. I'll give you a clue. See the man sitting on the second throne next to Inori's? Yep. He slew Mana."

Everyone's attention went over Shu, who felt visibly uncomfortable for having all eyes resting on him. He nervously waved at them while attempting to smile, but only managed to form a slightly crooked grin on his face for which he hated himself. Why did he have to be so uncool? Could someone please just shoot him now? How embarrassing…

"Come on, king. Stand up and introduce yourself." Hare whispered next to him with an encouraging smile. "Don't worry, they will love you!"

Realizing that there was no way around this, he decided to gulp down his nervousness and take his place next to Inori. Heck, if SHE could stand up here and talk, then he should have been able to as well. Still, all those people staring at him in that analyzing way made him feel slightly uncomfortable. They were probably evaluating him to check if he was worthy to be their beloved queen's king. Somehow this felt like visiting your girlfriend's father for the first time…only that it was SO MUCH worse…

" _I better make this one count…well, here goes nothing."_ He thought and started to address Inori's people.

"Greeting to you all! My name is Ouma Shu and I am here today, because I recently learned that our dear queen was stuck here and had some trouble. I am seriously ashamed of the fact that it took me so long to realize her and her people's pain and am deeply sorry for arriving this late. Let me assure you, though, that I will do everything in my might to put an end to your imprisonment in this realm as soon as possible so that every single one of you can return home where you belong! To achieve that, I would kindly ask of you to bear with me for a little while until I have busted us all out. Please accept me as your king." He said and bowed to them all in respect. Well, hopefully he had done it right.

The crowd started mumbling and his ears happened to catch some of the many voices .

"Ouma Shu, huh? So that's him. I like that kid."

"He's kinda cute. The queen's lucky."

"He's THE Ouma Shu! Awesome!"

Shu was surprised to see a lot of approving faces and hear the sound of applause, once he had looked up from his bow. Some were even calling him king already, which made him back off in shock a little.

"They are fine with it? They don't even know me…!"

That was the moment he got a friendly smack against his back by the head guard.

"That's alright. If you are only half the man Inori made you appear to be in her stories, then you are already more than qualified for the job. Besides, if Inori wants you to be king, then you will be king. No one questions her decisions." He said to him. The king figured the man was probably grinning behind that helmet of his while he himself was busy rubbing the aching spot on his back. Who the hell was that guy anyway? And why did he have to hit him? Shu hadn't asked for this.

"She hasn't said anything about me being her king, yet, though." He objected grumpily. That's when he felt a certain pink haired woman interlacing arms with him.

"You are king now, Shu." She softly said.

"Now she did." Jun stated the obvious with a grin.

"Seriously? Just like that?" The now-official-king asked them in disbelief. Everyone just nodded.

Some little kids from the crowd then suddenly decided to come running to them. A couple of them danced around them happily, while some hugged Inori with a big smile.

"I am happy for you, big sis. You found your king at last!" A girl of about 8 years said. Inori just kindly stroke her hair in a motherly way. Before Shu could ask what the deal with all the kids around them was, he felt someone tugging on his coat. When he decided to look down, he found a young boy who watched him with hopeful eyes.

"Uhm, mister? Big sis Inori plays with us when she has time. Will you, too?"

"Yeah, please!" Another kid asked of him. Before he knew it, there was a whole group of them swarmed around him and asking for the same thing. How the hell did he grow so popular all of a sudden?

"Uh, sure, I guess…?" He told them with a confused shrug, to which they all cheered. Well, he wasn't sure what this was all about, exactly, but he wouldn't say he disliked it. He had to admit that the kids were kind of cute.

"So, tell us, big sis…" One of the girls suddenly asked Inori with eyes full of what looked to be anticipation. "Kings and queens are usually married, right? When is your wedding gonna be? I wanna see you in a wedding dress!" A lot of other girls agreed with her and were now looking up to her queen for an answer, too.

But the pink haired woman could only tilt her head in confusion. "Wedding?" She turned to her king with a questioning look and asked: "Shu, what's a wedding?"

The man in question couldn't answer her because of the fact that he was suddenly overwhelmed by his embarrassment. With a color so red that it would have made every tomato in the world jealous at him, he just looked at her in shock.

"W-wedding…?" To his surprise, Hare had pretty much the same expression as he had and also asked the same question. It was as if she was mimicking him.

"Eh…? You don't know? If you love someone deeply, you marry him. Didn't you say you loved him before?" One of the kids was kind enough to explain it to the oblivious queen.

"Ah, I see…" She nodded understandingly and turned back to Shu. "Let's get married, Shu." She calmly proposed as if it wasn't a big deal at all. It nearly gave Shu a heart attack. They hadn't even returned home, yet!

Upon seeing his shocked expression, she only tilted her head questioningly again. "We can't?"

The king saw the disappointment in her eyes and immediately panicked. With arms quickly waving in front of him in a disagreeing manner, he said: "N-no! It's not like I don't want to, but to have a wedding now is…"

Unfortunately for him, the sad look in her eyes didn't make it any easier for him to explain it to her properly, which nearly made him cry in frustration. _"Don't look at me like that, Inori! You are killing me!"_ He cried mentally.

"It doesn't sound like a bad idea, though." Jun suddenly butted in. "We could use a party to celebrate our victory. Why not use the opportunity to throw off a wedding ceremony?" Shu and Hare just looked at him in disbelief. Was that man serious? Were they all doing this on purpose or something?

"T-this isn't the time for that!" They both objected in complete embarrassment. Once they realized they had said the same thing in unison again, they looked at each other in surprise. Hare couldn't help but avert her gaze quickly, though, nervously playing around with her fingers while looking away.

"I mean…don't we have to get out of here before Mana revives? I thought there was a time limit or something?"

Shu sighed in relief once he had heard that. Finally someone who shared his worries. He had been about to lose it here if thing would have continued like that. He should make sure to remember thanking his childhood friend for helping him out later.

"Hare is right, guys. Let's focus on getting everyone out of here first, alright?"

Everyone aside from Hare seemed to be disappointed, but could understand where Shu was coming from and thus quietly accepted to let the matter of a royal wedding rest for now.

"So, what do we do to get out of here?" Hare asked the question of the day. Shu only scratched his head and looked around, apparently searching for something or someone.

"That's why I brought Keido here. Where is that guy anyway?"

That was the moment Inori turned to the head guard and said: "Please bring my guest in."

The man in heavy armor gave her a nod and lifted his hand to give a signal to some of his subordinates in the distance. They nodded as well and moved towards that crystal tree that connected every floor of the palace with each other. The touched it and vanished, only to reappear again after a couple of seconds, bringing Keido with them. They told the crowd to cut them a path, to which they obediently complied. However, as they were standing aside to let Keido and the guards come through, some of the Japanese people appeared to recognize the man in front of them as the man responsible for the deaths of thousands. They didn't hold back on sharing that information with the rest.

"Wait, isn't that Shuichiro Keido? Why is he here?"

"Oi, what the hell is that asshole doing here? He is the one who locked us up in loop seven!"

"He's got quite the nerve to show his face to us! I bet Inori wants to pass judgment on him next, now that Mana is gone!"

"That's right!"

The voices of the people grew louder as they recognized Keido and started to trash talk him. Keido for his part made it look like it didn't bother him at all. He just kept looking straight forward while he continued to walk up to Shu, Inori and the rest with his hands casually folded behind his back like always. Apparently, the pride of that man wasn't broken that easily. Shu had to admit that he kind of respected that. He probably wouldn't have been able to pull off such an act of superiority if he had been in Keido's shoes right now.

Speaking of respect, the king was also seriously impressed by the good job the people had done with fixing that old man up. They had given him a haircut, shaved off that beard of his, aside from that little mustache he had always used to have, and had repaired as well as cleaned his old anti-bodies coat. He almost looked like he had once, before he had ended up here. This was like watching one of these beauty shows on TV, in which they changed the ugliest people into the prettiest top models. Seriously, they had even made him look younger somehow, with all that graying hair, he had once had, being restored to its previous black glory. He also missed his wrinkles, which made him look like he was in his mid 30s, instead of his actual mid 50s. The power of voids sure as hell couldn't be underestimated. Shu would have to find the people responsible for that change and praise them for that. At least later, when there was the time.

The proud ex-leader of the antibodies finally reached the throne and stood in front of Inori and Shu. Everyone in the throne room got quiet, so they could hear what was being said between them.

"You wanted to see me?" Keido calmly asked. Shu was the one who spoke next.

"You were closely tied to Da'ath before, isn't that correct?"

"Yes, that's true."

"Then you should have information about this place and its meaning. We want to ask you some questions."

"Very well. Ask." The guards hit him once for his lack of respect.

"May I remind you that you are speaking in front of the king and the queen, scum? You will address them properly!" They demanded, but Shu only gave them a sign that it was enough.

"No, it's alright. Let him speak the way he wants." He asked of them. They looked like they wanted to object, but once they also saw their queen shaking her head dismissively, they decided to let it rest.

"You once told me Shu was the key in freeing us. How?" This time it was Inori who asked Keido.

The man took a moment to readjust his clothes and cleared his throat, before calmly replying: "This world was created to serve as a place humanity can evolve in together. It is meant to host everyone killed by the apocalypse virus until they have evolved and are led back to reality by Adam and Eve. To fulfill that purpose, both, Adam and Eve, have to work together. In other words, it is impossible for them to lead the people back home, should they be separated from each other. That's why I said Ouma Shu's presence was required in this realm for anything to be put into motion for he is the king chosen by Eve."

Shu's expression darkened slightly once a grim thought crossed his mind. "So are you trying to tell us, that it is impossible for us to leave without Mana, who is Eve?"

"I am saying that it is impossible for Adam to save the people currently stuck in this realm without Eve, yes. Luckily for you, though, your sister isn't the only option we have when we are talking about Eve."

"Do you mean that there can be multiple Eves?" The king asked with an eyebrow raised in confusion only to see the former Da'ath member shake his head slowly.

"Eve is a special being. There can never be a second one. Same goes for Adam. Though it is possible for Eve to change her mind and choose a different Adam, it is impossible for someone else to become Eve. The person who became Eve, meaning your sister, will continue to bear that title until she fulfills her role."

"Then what did you mean just now? About another option?" Shu saw the man in front of him taking a look at Inori as he continued to speak.

"Inori Yuzuriha. That was the name given to you, right?" He asked her. When he got a nod from her in response, he turned back to Shu and continued his explanation.

"The person, who is now known as 'Inori Yuzuriha', was an artificial being created by Da'ath to serve as a host for Eve's soul. She was made to have the same powers as Eve has, so that Eve could use her like her own body, which was lost on Lost Christmas. That was the plan at least. Through unexpected events, however, Inori Yuzuriha happened to develop her own personality and soul separate from Eve and is now able to live on her own. Regardless of that, she was still created to have Eve's abilities and thanks to that, she is able to use them despite not actually being Eve. In other words, it's like having two Eves where there is meant to be only one. An Eve impostor, so to say. You could call it an error in the system."

"Well, thank god it happened. It means we have a way out without having to free Mana, right?" Shu said with a happy smile. Keido merely gave him a slow nod. Once they saw that, everyone allowed themselves to sigh in relief.

"So…what is it we have to do?" Was what the brown haired king wanted to know next.

"Adam's role is to open the rift between this realm and reality, like how you most likely did when you came here. However, the gate between both realms will only allow Adam and Eve to pass through it, so Eve's role will be to create a crystal 'ark', big enough to let all residents of this world fuse with it. By doing that, Eve will be able to trick the gate to let others pass. The gate will think of the crystals as part of Eve, since Eve is the one who controls crystals."

Keido expected some kind of reaction from Inori and didn't get disappointed when he saw her frown once he had told her that.

"Moving crystals becomes hard once people have fused with them. This won't be easy." She thought out aloud.

"Naturally. Eve can control crystals, but not people. As soon as people become part of crystals, it will weaken Eve's control over them. But that was just the plan Da'ath had formed before they knew of Adam's void. With a void meant to assume everything its master wishes to assume, it pretty much eliminates the need of a crystal ark. For Adam can use it to simply absorb every denizen of this realm and carry them with him as he passes the gate back to reality." The former leader of the antibodies wasn't all that surprised to look into the faces of disbelief everyone around him was giving him. He was aware of the fact that his plan must have sounded more than ridiculous to them. Still, he was looking at them as seriously as ever, not even giving them the slightest possibility to think he was merely joking.

"Hold it, just a second." Shu said while making a move with his hands that signaled Keido to stop talking for now. "I am not exactly sure, but did you just say I should ABSORB all these PEOPLE? Is that even possible? I mean…do they even fit into it?"

They saw Keido sigh and shake his head in what seemed to be disappointment. "Do I even have to explain the capabilities of your own void? My, what a foolish brat you are…"

Shu narrowed his eyes on him, not looking pleased at all. When he saw the guards next to Keido look at him with wishful eyes, he decided to give them a nod while showing them his thumb and index finger with a little gap between both of them, to tell them they should exercise restraint. The guards nodded happily, yet understandingly, and smacked the back of Keido's head. Just hard enough to annoy him, but gently enough to not cause too much pain. The older man then sent an evil glare up to Shu as if he was saying: "You damn brat!" to which the king's eyes merely seemed to reply: "You asked for it."

Grumpily, Keido decided to go on with his explanation: "Your void is meant to assume everything, so of course it will have enough space for everything, despite its size. And since it appears to be made of a sort of crystal, it will allow the evolved people of this world to fuse completely with it, instead of just storing their voids in it. Of course, you will still need Eve's…"

He got interrupted by the king. "The name's Inori." He said in a correcting way, to which Keido only grit his teeth in annoyance. Hare and Jun couldn't help but snicker at that scene. With eyes shut so tightly that his eyebrows trembled in anger, he continued:

"As I was saying…you will still need _Inori's_ help to let the gate accept that crystal arm of yours and let you all pass, which shouldn't be that hard to do."

While the royal couple and their friends were busy digesting that information, the crowd started to mumble among themselves.

"Did you understand any of that crap he was saying?"

"Dunno, this whole stuff is beyond me, but I think they mentioned a way out for us."

"Seriously? That's awesome!"

"Yeah…and now that they know everything they need, they can kill off that asshole and be done with it."

"Yeah! Down with Keido! Down with Keido!"

Shu and the gang grimaced once they heard the people demand for an execution. Even Keido seemed to be slightly worried, although he was good at hiding it behind his poker face.

"Man, they really hate him." Hare stated the obvious. "What should we do now, Shu?"

"We can't just kill him. Not after he helped us so willingly." Jun added with a troubled expression. "But then again…it wouldn't be wise to go against the people's will."

"Calm down, everyone!" The king finally asked of the people in front of him. They all obediently complied soon after that. When he was sure that he had their attention, he continued: "I understand your hatred for that man, but you must understand that I brought him here to get information from him in exchange for taking him with us. I can't go back on my word now." He tried to explain it to them, but their voices grew louder again.

"Sure you can! Just leave him here!"

"Yeah! He did the same when he locked us up in loop seven! He left us for dead, why can't we do the same?"

"Because we are better than him." Shu answered calmly. "Besides, he ended up at the same place as you all and has been stuck here for a long time. Unlike you, who had a community around you, he pretty much lived in solitude most of the time. Don't you think that was punishment enough?"

Some of the people actually backed down and seemed to think about Keido's situation after they had heard that. Their voices grew more and more quiet as they apparently decided that Shu was probably right. But there were still people, who weren't convinced that easily.

"That still doesn't earn him the right to leave with us. He doesn't deserve it!"

"Yes, please reconsider! It's not right!"

For some reason, Inori's expression darkened once she had heard that.

"It isn't right? Why?" The crowd suddenly grew silent again and looked at Inori in surprise. She usually didn't get angry at them that easily. In fact…she newer grows angry at all. "You want to kill someone, who had just helped you find a way out? Is that the right thing to do?"

They all just looked at each other in puzzlement. Why was Inori suddenly taking Keido's side?

"You wanted me to be queen because you did not want to follow Mana. I could relate to that, so I accepted. But now you want me to kill someone just because he has no further use for us. How is that any different from the way Mana thought? If you wanted a leader who would do that, there was no need to put me on that throne of yours. Mana would have sufficed." She told them. Her voice still sounded rather calm, yet had that dissatisfied ring to it.

The way these people thought reminded her of the way the Tennouzu High students had acted when they had turned their backs on Shu. All they had asked for was to be freed, but as soon as they had gotten what they wanted, they had discarded him. It was the same thing her people tried to do with Keido now. It was an ungrateful, selfish and unforgiveable way of thinking and she disliked it very much. She would not tolerate that thought by her people.

The crowd understood what Inori was trying to tell them and looked down in shame. What had been the point of separating themselves from the Mananites, if they would act the same way they did? They were starting to become the monsters they so very much despised about this world. The horrible creatures under Mana's command that made them wish to return home so bad in the first place. Suddenly, no one voiced his objections anymore. They just all looked up to their leaders in shame.

Feeling bad about the look they gave him and Inori, Shu figured he would make it a bit easier for them by saying: "We won't ask you to accept him as one of our own. You don't have to like him or talk to him, if you don't want to. We can very well understand where your hatred is coming from, but please try to restrain yourselves just for a little while until the whole situation is over. I promise you it won't be long."

Hare nodded and added: "The king is right, guys. Why don't you look at the positive side? We are all going home soon. Isn't that great?"

The mood of the crowd started to improve slightly. Some were showing a weak smile again, while others started too mumble some words of approval. Jun was the next one to speak up.

"The king, the queen and I will be working out a plan for our journey home. I will let you know the details once everything is decided. Please return to your previous activities and prepare everything for an immediate evacuation, in case it will be necessary. That is all for now."

The gang watched the countless people bow in respect all at once, before slowly walking up to the crystal tree that would allow them to leave the throne room. While it grew emptier by the second, Shu found his way back to his throne and sat down with an exhausted sigh.

"Whew…I thought they would murder us together with Keido for a sec…that was some serious tension just now."

"Nah, they would never hurt Inori. Even if they disagree with her opinion, all they would dare to do is try to convince her to reconsider." Hare explained with a smile. She put both her arms on the back of Shu's throne and decided to let her head rest on them as she stood behind it.

"I won't allow them to become monsters. They wanted me to protect them, so I did." The pink haired queen added with narrowed eyes. She may have still been a bit mad with them, but everyone was sure she wouldn't remain in that state for long. Shu even thought she looked kind of cute when she looked like that, but figured that he may have not been the best judge for that, seeing as he would find her cute in almost any situation anyway.

"Even if it means protecting them from themselves, right?" Jun said with a bitter smile as he watched her walking up to her own throne and taking a seat next to Shu. All she did was give him a nod with closed eyes.

Keido suddenly coughed with an embarrassing looking face. "I suppose I owe both of you my gratitude." He had closed his eyes and faced another way to try and make it less obvious that he had pretty much forced himself to say that.

"Don't mention it…" Shu merely said with another sigh. He had his right elbow rested against the armrest of his throne and allowed his head to lean on his hand. "I DID say I would take you with me, so I would have felt pretty bad if you would have been killed. We probably wouldn't have been able to wait for your revival without risking to let Mana come back to live as well. No way in hell am I gonna let that girl pass the gate with us, and I most certainly don't want to have to kill her again. She WAS my sister at one point, you know…"

"She's your sister?" Apparently, Hare hadn't known that, since she looked at Shu with eyes wide from shock. For some reason the first thought that came to mind was that Mana would become her sister-in-law should she ever by some wonder happen to marry Shu. She then buried her face in her arms in shame. Sometimes she hated how her brain operated. Jun also happened to raise an eyebrow at that, but chose to say nothing. If it had been out of his surprise about the revelation of Mana's relationship with Shu or the fact that Hare was behaving very odd right now, will forever be a mystery.

Meanwhile, the head guard seemed to finally get that his presence wasn't needed anymore. With a bow, he excused himself: "I think I will take my leave now. I will assign some guards to follow that special guest of yours to ensure his safety. Just in case."

"Thank you." Inori replied politely and gave him a nod to let him know he was allowed to go. Without further ado, he was on his way. To be honest, Shu had already forgotten that he had been here in the first place. That guy could be as silent as a ninja. They had watched him go for a while, before Jun decided to talk again. This time in a rather serious tone.

"By the way. Since Shu mentioned that we couldn't have afforded to wait for another rebirth, does that mean that we will have to leave the nearly 2000 people behind, who are currently awaiting their revival?"

That was a question everybody surely had asked themselves before, but clearly had avoided asking it out aloud. Their faces suddenly became grim as everyone averted their gazes, not wanting to say that one thing, they were all afraid of. It was Keido, who eventually broke the ice.

"I am afraid that is the case…" His calm statement was met with the frowns of all the persons present.

"We may be able to delay the journey until those 400 guys come back to life. The ones Jun mentioned in his report." The brown haired king stated with a look as if he was deep in thought, trying to find solutions. His troubled expression, however, only showed everyone that he wasn't finding any.

"That would still mean we would have to leave a little over a thousand behind, though." Hare said and bit her bottom lip in frustration. The former antibodies leader shook his head slowly.

"If those 400 even make it back in time…Eve's recovery will be this realm's number one priority. She will regenerate faster than anybody else normally would. Of course, that means that the recovery of everybody else is advancing much slower than usual, if it hasn't even temporarily stopped completely."

"If that's the case, we should send out a couple of people to the crystal field at which the cocoons gather. That way we will at least manage to bring every new arrival they happen to spot back here in time. It won't be much, but will at least save some of the people…" Yahiro's younger brother thought out aloud and turned his attention towards Inori. "What are your thoughts on that, milady?"

Inori remained quiet. She appeared to be very absent right now, probably deeply lost in thoughts. Of course everyone around her understood the position she was in. Though she may now officially share her responsibility with Shu, it didn't change the fact that it was her who had led these people for 5 long years. They had lived and fought together and had believed in and died for each other. These were her people. She had wanted to save all of them. It was an undeniable fact, that this thought of hers had been a naïve one from the start, but somehow she hadn't realized that until now. And so this was another one of these moments she was forced to make hard and unfair decisions. It was the one thing she hated most about having to be in charge, yet still had to do anyway.

"Do that." She finally answered Jun after taking a deep breath. "Also tell the head guard to let the soldiers he posted at Mana's cocoon hold their position until the very last moment they think is safe. The moment they return, we leave. Everyone who isn't here by then…" She couldn't help but pause for a second, obviously not really wanting to say the words she meant to tell them, but forced herself to do so anyway. "…will be left behind."

A deathly silence hung upon them after the pink haired queen had finished talking. Each and everyone of them averted their gazes in pity, feeling bad for the ones who would end up getting the short end of the stick, but also knew that there is hardly anything else they could do. If they waited too long and risked for Mana to revive, they would have to fight her again, to make sure she wouldn't follow them through the rift Shu would open. Of course, another fight against Mana would also come with more losses from their side. The people they had been waiting for may get the chance to return to them, but others would take their place, thus making this whole thing an endless cycle.

There had to be losers in this. Shu and the gang couldn't save everyone. They knew that and even though it may have been hard, especially for Inori, they had to accept it.

"As you wish." Jun bowed to her. "I will relay your orders as well as start with the preparations for our escape. If you would excuse me…" As he was about to leave, Hare hastily stood up and bowed as well.

"Me, too. I will make sure to heal the rest of the patients in the infirmary, so that they will be ready for the journey."

With that, they took their leave. And since Keido had the common decency to know that his presence wasn't needed anymore, as well, he cleared his throat and made up an excuse to give the both monarchs some privacy.

They had remained silent for a while then, even after the slightly younger looking old man had left. Only after what seemed like half an eternity did Inori decide to break the silence.

"It's hard, Shu." She said, having suddenly lost the façade of a strong and dependable queen she had kept up until now. With a sad and troubled look, she dropped her gaze. "Being the leader."

"I know…" He replied with an understanding look. Oh, how well he understood. The constantly growing weight on your shoulders you had to bear until the moment you thought it would crush you. And even then weren't you allowed to drop it, because you knew that if you did that, people would get hurt by it.

But you see, the problem was that sometimes people would get hurt either way, you had just made it less painful for them. Yet people didn't care about that, because they wanted to not get hurt at all in the first place. They didn't care if that might have been impossible from the start, they just wanted it. And that was why being a leader sucked.

"You can be proud of yourself, though. You pulled off a better job than I would have." He tried to cheer her up a little.

"I just mimicked what I saw Gai and you do. I tried to be a strong queen, even though I didn't want to be one."

"And in the end, the hard work paid off." He praised her with a kind smile while standing up and walking over to the see-through crystal wall. Lifting a hand and pointing it towards the camp beneath them, he said: "Just look at all you have achieved! There are so many people you have saved from Mana. You have protected them, given them hope and soon, you will also lead them to safety."

He watched her stand up and walk over to him to have a look over the kingdom she had created. She put a hand on the glass-like structure and looked down at the people in sadness.

"But I won't be able to save all…" The king gave her a bitter smile and put a hand on her shoulder in a comforting way.

"You were never meant to save all, Inori. It's impossible."

"You tried to save all, too." She said to him and shook her head to show him that she did not understand. Why was it okay for him to try and not for her? Shu looked at her and was searching for something witty to say, but eventually had to admit that she had made a point.

"Yeah. Yeah, I did." He suddenly nodded in defeat. "And I think it's not bad to aim for that, you know? Trying to achieve the best outcome, that is. You just can never expect it to come true."

"Why not?"

He chuckled softly and laid his hand on the crystal wall in front of them, looking down on the people in the camp with a bitter smile.

"Because stuff like _this_ happens…I tried to save them all, yet look how many ended up here, including you." His gaze went back to Inori. "We are humans, Inori. We may have these fancy powers, but in the end, we still are what we are. Perfection will always be something we will aim for, but never attain. People will keep trying to make us think we have to be perfect. They WANT us to be perfect. But the truth is, we aren't. We can never allow ourselves to forget who we are. Does that make any sense to you?" He asked her and scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

Luckily for him, Inori gave him one of her trademark nods and said: "I am who I am, not what people want me to be, right?", which, in return, made him sigh in relief when he heard it. If she wouldn't have gotten it the first time, he would have had a hard time finding a way to explain it more properly to her right now. Seeing as he wasn't exactly teacher material, he was simply glad his first lecture had been a success.

"Exactly. Never make the same mistake I did and let people's expectations raise the bar too high for you. Instead of being sad about the things you failed to do in their eyes, be proud of the things you WERE able to achieve. What matters is that you know you did everything you could have done. Once you manage that, you won't be looking back in regret."

He had made it sound like it had been meant to encourage Inori alone, while it had actually also applied to him. He had only come to realize this himself, recently, when he had decided to stop trying to be what others wanted him to be and started to be what he wanted to be. Himself. It had been foolish to think everything he had done in the past had also ended in failure. Sure, he may have failed as a terrorist, a leader or a savior. But for being a young boy of mere 17 years at that time, he sure as hell had done more than enough. He had done everything he could, while everybody else had just been busy expecting him to do more. It wasn't him who had failed, it had been them.

He merely chuckled and shook his head because he only came to realize this now, when he could have done so long ago. It would have made a lot of things easier for him, but oh well, at least Inori knew now, too. If it saved her the pain he had had to endure in the past, it had been more than worth it to learn it the hard way.

"Still, it's sad…" Inori's voice brought him back from his thoughts. "I feel bad for those who will be left behind."

"Yeah, me too." Shu agreed with a heavy sigh. "They sure don't deserve that fate. But you shouldn't blame yourself for it."

He saw her shake his head, followed by locking eyes with him. "I am not. I did what I could for all of them. You are right, Shu. There is nothing to regret."

"Glad to hear that. I hope that won't change until the moment we are able to go home, so that you will be able to step down as the queen with a feeling of satisfaction." He told her with a kind smile and started to pat her on the head proudly.

"I won't miss that title…" He heard her mumble in a monotonous way that made it quite clear how little she actually liked her current position. The frown she had had on her face when she had said that was quick to vanish and be replaced by a happy smile when she took his hand with both of hers. "Though with you finally at my side again, maybe it won't be that hard anymore."

Shu just laughed at that. "Well, it will at least be half as hard for you than it was before, though hopefully, we won't have to be leaders for very much longer." His attention briefly switched to the people he could see standing near the palace, with Jun in front of them who was apparently giving instructions. "Speaking of which…we should probably help out and make sure this whole operation goes smoothly, what do you think?"

She nodded briefly and said: "We got to make sure we don't leave anyone behind we can bring with us. Will you be alright, though? Taking all these people in?" She asked him with a worried look on her face. The king decided to merely chuckle in an overconfidently way while shrugging it off as an effortless procedure.

"Oh please, how hard can it be?"

-GC-

Three hours later, Shu could only curse at his own naïve words. People had formed two lines in front of him and were fusing with his void one after another…always two at a time before the next pair would follow. Not only was it starting to tire him because he was assuming a sheer endless amount of people as a WHOLE, he was also doing so for a while now. Thousands of people were already residing in the void that adorned his right arm and it didn't feel like the amount of people, who were still waiting in line to enter that "ark" of his, was decreasing either.

"God damnit, Jun, how many people ARE there…?" he asked the brown haired man next to him in frustration. The slightly younger man was supervising a woman at his side, who held a calculator-void in her arms to probably count the amount of people already inside his void.

"Relax, Shu. You are already more than halfway done. Just a bit more." He tried to reassure his king with a bright smile.

Said man was already feeling greatly strained by the gathered people in his arm. They weren't heavy so to say, but their constant chatter in there sort of drove him nuts. It was as if he was standing in the middle of a town square and was forced to listen to EVERYTHING that was said at the SAME time. As far as he could tell, everyone in there was having a blast and couldn't wait to finally leave this place. Well, Shu couldn't blame them, but would it hurt them to try to be a bit quieter? At least he was slowly getting the hang of this "blocking out unwanted voices"-stuff Hare had talked about when he had first come here. He noticed that the voices started to grow more and more distant, the more he tried to shut them out. Hopefully he would manage to block them out completely by the time they would depart, or he was sure his head was going to burst…

Speaking of Hare, the kind hearted brunette girl was always near him to check on his health, obviously worried about him having to load such a heavy burden on his shoulders. "How are you feeling, Shu?" She asked him in a concerned way.

"I am fine, don't worry." He just smiled at her, though the droplets of sweat which were visible on his forehead were kind of telling her a different story.

"Are you sure? We could always take a break if you want to."

"Nah, keep them coming. I just wished I would have practiced shutting out their voices more, before we started all this."

That was the moment in which Inori suddenly decided to ditch her place at his right side by softly touching his right arm, followed by vanishing into it. He wasn't sure what exactly she was doing there, but the voices grew fainter as they were replaced by her starting to sing. It seemed as everyone was stopping their conversations in favor of listening to Inori's songs. What a great relief that was for the brown haired king. Not only was everyone shutting up, he also got to hear the angelic voice of his beloved queen while doing his work. This was the best.

"Thank you, Inori." He told her with a relaxing sigh and closed eyes. Finally he could have a bit of peace in that throbbing head of his. She didn't answer since she was busy with distracting her people from distracting Shu, but he knew she had heard him.

He saw people with flying voids bring in a couple more people who have probably just revived. With the flying ban temporarily lifted in favor for the flying soldiers to bring in new arrivals as soon as possible, it wasn't a problem anymore to do so. He recognized one of the soldiers to be Juan, who carried a young woman in his arms as he landed on the ground. He let her go and appeared to say something to her, which must have offended the lady, for she merely answered with a slap. Shu couldn't help to snicker when he had witnessed that.

"What are you laughing at, king?" The boy grumbled angrily while walking up to him and rubbing the cheek that had gotten hit by the girl. "Don't look down on me just because you already got that eye candy of a queen for a girlfriend. You lucky bastard probably never got that kind of answer from her, huh?"

"Nope, though I get plenty of slaps from another friend of mine, so I pretty much know how you feel." He told him with a sympathizing grin.

"Another 'friend', huh…you a playboy or something?" The narrowed eyes the king was confronted with couldn't hide the jealousy in them. Hare just burst out into loud laughter.

"Shu? A playboy? That's a first."

"Shut up…I wasn't THAT unpopular." The brown haired man in question said with an annoyed look.

"I wasn't trying to say that. It was just that I couldn't stop imagining you to be one of those douchebags we had at school. The thought alone is ridiculous enough to make me laugh." She managed to say between soft giggles.

Juan just folded his arms in front of his chest and stared at them in puzzlement. "I don't get it…how could you have make someone like Inori fall for you, then? There should have been some stiff competition going on…"

"You bet there was…but Inori just kinda ignored everyone aside from Shu right from the start. No one could understand why, but she simply did."

"Seriously? Just like that? Dozens of people struggle with getting girlfriends and that guy just gets one like that. Life's just not fair…" The tanned young man said with a defeated sigh. "Speaking of which, where is the queen anyway?" He wanted to know and looked around him, searching for an all-too-familiar pink haired woman.

Shu just made a gesture that suggested him to direct his attention towards his void-arm. "Giving a private concert in there. Why? You need something?"

"Well, we pretty much brought in the last of the reborn ones. Doesn't look like anyone else will come back to life anytime soon."

That was the moment Inori suddenly appeared again next to Shu. Sadly, that also meant that she wasn't keeping the people in his void occupied anymore. Well, the peace had been nice, even though it had been a short lived one.

"Thank you. You can now also enter Shu's void if you want." She said to Juan with a pleased nod, apparently having heard every word, despite having been inside of Shu's void.

"I think I will spend a bit more time with you guys before that." The black haired islander said with a grin. "So, how was it inside the king's void?"

"It's like a giant hall. You can also see what's happening outside by looking through the crystal ceiling."

"I suppose it's very crowded, huh?"

The queen shook her head disapprovingly. "There still is much room left. No need to worry."

Shu suddenly grimaced for reasons no one around him could understand. "Inori…why are the kids crying in there…?" He pointed at his void.

"I told them we are all going home where we belong. When I said I would stay with you, they suddenly started crying and said they would miss me."

"Man…they sure love you. Haven't heard kids cry so loud in a while…" The king grumbled.

Hare only kindly smiled at that. "Well, she was a replacement mother for most of them, so it's not that surprising."

"It was fun playing with them." The pink haired woman told them. "I will miss that."

"Well, you could always have your own children, you know?" Juan suddenly suggested with his head leaned back against the arms he had folded behind it. Inori merely gave him a confused look.

"I can?"

"Yeah. You just need to ask someone you really love for one or two." He casually answered her. When Shu saw her look over at him with wishful eyes after that, he just wished Juan would have shut the fuck up. How was he supposed to deal with this now?

"Shu…?" She asked of him.

"Could we PLEASE delay this sort of talk for later? My sanity would really appreciate that." He told her that with a pained expression. People's voices were starting to fill his mind again and on top of that, he would have to think about family establishment? He wished everyone would just give him a break and let him do one thing at a time.

"Of course, if Shu is too busy, I could also help out with…" Juan suddenly offered to Inori, but was soon interrupted by Shu, who just put his left hand on the boy's shoulder, squeezing it maybe a bit too hard.

"How about you kindly move that Jamaican ass of yours into my void, before I seriously consider leaving you behind, hm?"He told him with a very fake looking smile and a clearly visible throbbing vein on his forehead. Scaaary.

"Relax, Shu. I was only kidding!" The boy laughed nervously while attempting to brush this whole matter off. "Besides…I am actually from the Dominican Republic…"

The annoyed king did not reply to that, but narrowed his eyes instead, giving the man in front of him a look that said: "Don't make me repeat myself."

Clearly getting the message, Juan could only utter a defeated sigh and did as he was told by touching the king's arm and vanishing into it. Finally! That was one problem less for Shu at the moment.

"Good news, Shu. I can see the end of the line approaching. We are almost done." He could hear Jun inform him and the rest. Great, another problem almost solved, too. He wouldn't mind if the rest would also go according to plan...without suddenly occurring disasters. Just this once for a change.

"King Shu! Queen Inori!" The two monarchs suddenly heard a group of 3 guards come rushing towards them with what seemed to be urgent news. "Mana's cocoon is showing a lot of activity…we believe there won't be much time before she revives."

Shu cursed mentally. Of course…why would it ever be easy…?

"Alright everyone, please remain calm while hurrying up just a little. There is no need for panic, yet!" Shu told them all. While they picked up the speed in fusing with his void, Inori called everyone guarding the walls back via crystal phone. Since they were all leaving now, there was no more need to keep watch.

It only took Shu a couple of minutes to absorb the remaining people. Jun confirmed the presence of every member of their community who was currently alive, which allowed them all to sigh in relief. Another thing less to worry about. Now the only thing left to do was for Hare and Jun to merge with the king's void…then they would all be on their way back home.

"Good work everybody." Shu praised both his friends and his queen for their excellent work in helping him assuming everyone. "Now it's your turn, guys."

Both, Hare and Jun, gave each other a nod and positioned themselves in front of Shu and Inori.

"It's all up to you two now. We are counting on you." Jun said with a laugh. Hare also gave them her brightest smile, obviously already hyped about going home at last.

"We will see you both on the other side."

The royal couple gave them a reassuring nod. Shu grinned and used his thumbs to point at himself and Inori.

"Leave it to us."

And with that, the two closer friends of the monarchs also touched Shu's void and merged with it like they had seen many others do before them.

" _It appears you have gathered everyone, brat."_ Shu could hear Keido's voice from inside his void shortly after he had assumed his friends. The old man had been one of the first people to get inside, simply to make sure no one would try to kill him. Since all the people had entered Shu's void, they had become unable to use their voids, because the voids had also been assumed by their king. And clearly, no one of them had been barbaric enough to attempt murder with their bare hands in there.

" _To open the rift, lift your void arm at the place you want to open it at and activate the void genome, as if you would want to pull a void out. Don't worry, it will work."_

"It better does…" Shu mumbled with a bit of worry in his voice and did as he was told. He lifted his right arm to a point in front of him, then closed his eyes. After a deep breath, he opened them again. With the red color having returned to them, he noticed how the familiar king's seal appeared at his feet, as well as the symbol of the king's power on both of his hands. He also didn't have to wait long for a glowing hole to appear at his right hand's fingertips. When he plunged his hand into it afterwards, a huge circle appeared in front of them, like the one at Shu's feet. Several smaller circles happened to pop up right away, aligned themselves at seemingly random positions followed by them starting to spin slowly. It was weird, but it kind of looked like this process was some kind of unlocking mechanism. If Shu would have been able to see the process during the first time he had opened the rift, he would have realized that it actually wasn't that much different from before. But, since he hadn't, this was a first time experience for him.

" _It is done. The rift will open itself shortly."_ Keido's voice forced itself into his mind again. The king sighed in relief once he heard that. Looking over to Inori, he said:

"This is it, Inori. We are only one step away from home."

The queen caught herself taking one last glimpse at the now empty camp that had been her and her people's home for half an eternity, before taking Shu's hand in hers and giving him a happy smile.

"Let's go. Together this time."

The circles which seemingly were responsible with the task of unsealing the gate, started to glow and eventually tore a hole into reality with a bright flash. They literally saw how more and more cracks appeared in midair right out of nowhere, ripping an invisible wall in front of them into little pieces which got sucked away in the supernatural phenomenon that apparently was the rift-gate that would lead them back home. Though Shu saw it for the very first time, he recognized the gate from the ominous sound alone, which had started to terrorize their ears at the very same moment the rift had showed itself to them.

"You better hold on tight! That's gonna be a hell of a ride!" Inori could hear Shu yell over the loud noise that surrounded them. She decided to heed his advice and clung to his arm with both her own ones while he put his second arm around her for additional safety as they ventured forward. They eventually got too close and got sucked in by the giant hole.

What followed was another one of those horrible rollercoaster rides Shu had already had the involuntary pleasure of experiencing before. Up and down, right and left...the harsh winds that governed this strange domain, which lied between reality and the void realm, never showed the two monarchs any mercy as they continued to push them around until the moment they would finally reach their destination.

Eventually they had been led through the horrible storm and both of them were more than relieved when they happened to be gently placed on a surface they could walk upon. Nothing around them made any sense…they were surrounded by a dark red sky with some white things that looked like clouds. The ground they were standing upon was actually not visible at all, it was just there. Basically, it looked like they were floating in a giant sphere of red with a bit of white. To call it bizarre would have been an understatement, but they honestly didn't really care anymore, as long as the wind had stopped tormenting them.

They took a glimpse at each other to check if the other one was alright, but ended up laughing once they saw the other's messy hair and initial very displeased look they had had on their faces for having been used as mother nature's plaything.

"You look funny, Shu." Inori giggled cutely and decided to fix his scarf and collar for him again, while he tried to do his best in making her hair look less like a bird's nest.

"Like you are one to talk." He replied with a chuckle. Figuring that they both wouldn't be able to fix the other's appearance any better than they already had, the king decided to also check up on the passengers, who still resided in his void arm.

"Everything ok in there?"

Hare's slightly teasing voice entered his mind. _"Things couldn't be better in here. Not even as much as a bump was felt by anyone. It's like traveling first class!"_

"Geez, how good for you all." Shu replied, sounding slightly annoyed at that. Why did everyone get the easy ride while he and Inori had to go through this… _torniccane? Y_ es, torniccane. A mixture of a tornado and a hurricane. Good thing he hadn't said that aloud. He knew it didn't make any sense, himself.

"Shu, look!" Inori's voice suddenly brought him back from his rambling thoughts. He looked over to the point she was pointing at and found what appeared to be another glowing hole only a couple meters in front of them. Hopefully an exit.

"Let's hurry over there and leave this place for good. I have had enough of it already…" Shu said and offered her his hand, which she took immediately. Together they ran towards it and didn't hesitate to jump through it at the same time.


	9. Checkmate

**9\. Checkmate**

At first, they couldn't see anything because of the bright light that surrounded them. As the light was fading, though, they started to regain more and more of their vision. The first thing they saw was the purplish color of the evening sky. A few stars were already starting to show themselves. Though that sight may have not been anything special, it was more than enough confirmation, that they had made it back to their own world. There was no time to be happy, though.

"Shu, run! It's a trap!" They suddenly heard Yahiro yell into their direction, followed by someone telling him to shut up and seemingly hitting him with something to silence him. The royal couple struggled to see something, since their eyes were still somewhat getting accustomed to the slightly darker area after having been forced to be exposed to so much light. When their eyes finally decided to bless their owners with clear vision once again, both the king and the queen were faced with a horrible sight.

Ayase, Tsugumi and Yahiro were forced to kneel on the ground with their hands held behind their heads. Each one of them had a man standing behind them, who aimed a gun at them. Yahiro was the only one who bent over slightly, since he had just been hit with the butt of his captor's rifle. The three men wore black bulletproof armor and helmets with visors, which covered their eyes. It reminded Shu of the antibody getup, just in black. Looking around, he also realized that these three men hadn't come alone. There were more of them surrounding the area and Shu was shocked to even see two endlaves standing guard behind the line of people. These guys seemed to not be joking around.

"What is the meaning of this?" Shu yelled in anger once he saw his friends being held at gunpoint. He demanded an answer for this.

The only thing he got, though, was the sound of loud and slow clapping. When he turned his attention towards the source of it, he was faced with yet another unpleasant surprise. For there was Yuu, levitating in a comfortable looking sitting position and still clapping with closed eyes and a pleasant look on his face. He was also surrounded by a couple of people in white suits that matched the appearance of the Da'ath kids Shu had seen when he had last fought that cursed envoy.

"Marvelous, truly marvelous, Ouma Shu. You appear to have succeeded in leaving the realm of the void without Eve. Just as you said you would. I must admit that I may have underestimated your competence, yet again. It appears you weren't chosen to be Adam for nothing."

"You again! What the hell do you want from me?" The king angrily yelled at him.

"What a foolish question…what could I possible want from Adam, who is supposed to bring the apocalypse?"

Shu gave him a defiant grin. "Too bad for you that I left Mana in the void where she belongs. There will never be an apocalypse as long as that's the case."

Yuu merely chuckled at that. "That's true, however, that just means we will have to get her out of there once again."

"Good luck with that, because only I can open the rift and pass through it. And I already got everything I wanted out of there. I am not going again."

"That's unfortunate. Luckily, though, you aren't our only option anymore."

The king backed off slightly when he heard the seriousness in Yuu's voice. He wasn't bluffing…

"What…?"

The envoy of Da'ath merely shrugged with an amused looking expression. "Foolish little king, you apparently don't even know that you have created two keys to the void when you were naïve enough to ventured into it. One for each void genome you took with you."

"Nonsense!" Shu objected heavily. "If the void genomes were the key, why would you have needed me?"

"Ah, while it's true that the void genome in its previous state wouldn't have served us with being a key, the ones you are holding right now have most certainly become able to. For, you see, the void genome is nothing but a tool used to activate the sleeping potential of the few human beings capable of becoming kings. Once a king decides to go through evolution, the void genome he wields will mutate and become one with his DNA. In your case, that means you have created two true-king void genomes which will be able to grant anyone Adam's power, who manages to take it away from you. Basically, your void genomes have become free passes for anyone who wants to enter or leave the realm of the void."

Shu's eyes widened in shock. "You tricked me! It never mattered if I would free Mana for you, as long as I would enter and return from the void realm!"

Yuu leaned back casually and let his head rest against his left hand for additional comfort. "Why yes, it would have mattered greatly. If you had brought Mana with you, it would have meant you accepted your role as Adam, which would have been perfect. You are right, though, that we were also prepared for the case of you returning without her, even if the chance of you achieving that was ridiculously small. You could say that you never stood a chance at winning, no matter what you would have done. In chess, there happens to be a fitting term for kings in your situation." He nonchalantly formed a 'gun' with his thumb, index and middle finger and pointed it at Shu with a pleased smirk on his face. "Checkmate."

He then proceeded in playfully feinting to pull the trigger to shoot Shu. At the same time, one of the endlaves behind Yuu aimed at Shu's left arm and fired a single bullet. Everyone just watched in shock as the king was hit by the projectile that went right through his upper arm and thus ripped it off completely. The force of the huge bullet threw him back a couple of meters, where he proceeded to roll off the ground for a bit, leaving a track of blood behind him. When he finally came to a halt, he just remained lying there, clutching the bloody stump that had been his left arm only moments prior with a very pain twisted face. His loud screams where echoing off the buildings at the deserted school grounds of Tennouzu High.

"Shu!" Inori had yelled in utter shock and even though she had wanted to rush to his side immediately, she knew that she would also only get shot by the endlaves and people around her. That's why she faced them first with an angry look and raised bother her hands in a violet move. The first endlave was then continuously stabbed by sharp and pointy crystals that had shot out of the ground beneath it. The heavy war machine was quick to cease its functions as its electronic was instantly trashed.

Before the second endlave to the right of the now destroyed one could even as much as point its weapon at her, she made another move as if she was pulling something to the right. The crystals inside the now nonfunctional endlave responded to their mistress' wish and slammed themselves and the remains of the endlave, which were still stuck to them, against the sole still operating one. The giant robot was pushed to the ground and buried by heavy crystals as well as metal trash. Unable to free itself from the pressure, it just remained lying there, immobilized.

Meanwhile, Ayase, Tsugumi and Yahiro used the confusion caused by Inori to overwhelm their captors. The distracted men couldn't react quickly enough to stop the three from kicking, punching and headbutting their way out. The three friends then grabbed the assault rifles, their captors had dropped, and used them to kill them without a second thought. They then commenced to find their way over to Shu while Inori was still dealing with the rest of the enemies. Yahiro carried Ayase whose wheelchair had been obviously lost to the enemy.

During all this confusion, Yuu simply watched the void genome leave Shu's cut off arm which lied on the ground and find its way over to his left one. He smirked when he saw the symbol of the king's power appear on the back of his left hand and decided to watch the rest of the fight with indifference, apparently not even truly interested in its outcome since he already had what he had wanted.

"Shu!" Tsugumi was the first to reach the wounded king. She kneeled over him to give him a once-over, only to grimace at the seriousness of the injury. There was also starting to be a lot of blood. The teary brown eyes of the pain filled man were able to look up to her blue ones, but he didn't seem to be able to form words at the moment from shock.

"This is bad…he needs treatment fast!" The dark haired hacker told their friends who had just managed to catch up to her.

Before Ayase and Yahiro could reply, they all saw Shu's remaining void-arm twitch, its green lights shining for a short duration. The trio was surprised to be met with 4 people who had appeared out of nowhere. The first one was Hare, who didn't waste any second to pull her own void out to treat Shu, the other ones were Juan, Jimmy and a girl with long, red hair. They didn't see much from her, since she quickly pulled out her void, which appeared to be a pair of mechanical wings and strapped themselves on her back. Then she simply grabbed Tsugumi and flew off with her.

"Hey, what the hell?" Yahiro asked as he and Ayase watched Tsugumi and the unknown girl fly away with worry.

"We don't have much time to explain. The king ordered us to take you all away, which we will do." Jimmy tried to explain quickly and picked Hare up, who was protesting heavily.

"Let me down! I must heal Shu!"

"There is no time. We must flee first." Jimmy stated reasonably and heaved the still protesting brunette girl onto his right shoulder. He then went over to Yahiro who still held Ayase.

"You there, the king asked for you to let the girl in your arms touch his arm so he can give her void back to her." When Yahiro only gave the American a questioning look, the man added with a bit more emphasis: "Just do it!"

The ex-drug dealer glared at the man since he disliked getting told what he had to do by someone he didn't even know, but decided to do so anyway since Shu was in a critical situation. He went over to his injured friend and knelt next to him, so that Ayase could take a hold of his void. As soon as she had done that, Shu summoned her void and transferred it to its original wielder. For the first time in a very long time, Ayase got to fly with her own power again. She would have enjoyed it far more though, if she wouldn't have been so worried about Shu's condition. When she saw the stranger in the U.S. uniform attempt to lift up his king, she was quick to object.

"I will carry him!" She insisted stubbornly, not really trusting the big man in front of her.

"No, your void is faster and more agile than mine. You will have to take the queen into safety." Jimmy argued and didn't stop picking up Shu. He carefully put the man on his other shoulder so that Hare could heal him while they would fly. When he had mentioned his queen, he had looked towards Inori.

"The queen?" Ayase asked in confusion and followed his gaze, only to realize she was looking into Inori's direction. "You mean Inori?" She saw the tall man nod, before he summoned his jetpack-void to him. The cannons that would usually adorn his shoulders, didn't materialize themselves, though. Either because he chose to keep them away, or because the void itself realized that both his shoulders were already occupied, thus leaving no space for them. Jimmy then took off without another word.

"Hey, wait! What about Yahiro?" She yelled after him, but he wasn't even listening anymore.

"I-I wi-wi-will t-t-ta-take h-him." Juan tried to say while trembling like a leaf and rubbing his arms which were pretty much exposed to the cold, thanks to him only wearing a short sleeved shirt and shorts which only went past his knees.

"Dude, what's your problem?" Yahiro asked suspiciously and backed off when the guy in front of them sneezed.

"Ja-Japan is too f-fu-fucking c-c-cold, man!" He whined and drew out his void in form of a hover board with shaking hands. It had just been his bad luck that it had to be winter in Japan just about now.

"No offense, but can you even carry a grown man?" Ayase pointed out a legitimate problem. Both, her and Yahiro, eyed the young man with a raised brow.

"D-don't underes-es-es-ACHOO!...the p-p-power of evolution…! Buargh…a-a-anyone of you got a t-t-tissue or s-something?" He said sniffing. Disgusted to no extend, Ayase decided to quickly turn around and fly away towards Inori, while Yahiro only raised a hand in her direction pleadingly. The look in his face said it all:

"Don't leave me with him!"

To be honest, Ayase felt a little bad for Yahiro, but as long as it would make him survive all this, he would simply have to suck it up and deal with it. She had other worries right now. A lot of things had happened in the shortest amount of time. Shu had come back and had brought back their old friends, alongside other strange persons. Not only would she have to somehow accept the fact that previously dead people were coming back into her life, she also had to ignore their strange supernatural powers for now, since there was no time to ask. Actually, time was running out regarding ALL the things she wanted to do right now.

There was no time to be happy about her friend's return, no time to enjoy flying around in her void again for the first time in, like, forever, no time to worry about Shu's critical situation, and most of all: There was no time to actually sit down and THINK about what the hell was actually going on right now. She was forced to put everything aside for now and move. Granted, this was not the first time in her life she was faced with hectic situations like these…she HAD been a terrorist for quite a while, after all. But to suddenly being thrown in after five long years of peace may have been just a little too much. Though no one would ever hear her complaining out aloud about that, that's for sure. She would never hear the end of it about how she had grown soft from Tsugumi. That girl was teasing her way too much as it was already.

And so Ayase chose to disregard the fact that her old pink haired friend was magically shooting out crystal rocks and other stuff at enemy soldiers, and simply flew over to her to take her with her.

"Inori!" She called out to the vocalist she hadn't seen in 5 years. When said woman turned around to the person calling her, she saw the brunette endlave pilot fly over to her with quite some speed. Slowing down only slightly before picking her up with both arms, Ayase was quick to dash away from the battlefield afterwards. Thanks to the speed of her void, the enemy gunmen weren't even fast enough to aim at her, before she was already way out of their reach and slowly fading into the evening sky.

"Ayase…" Inori mumbled in shock and gave her old friend a quick hug.

"It's good to have you back, you know? Shu wasn't the only one who missed you." Ayase grinned at her, but realized she shouldn't probably have mentioned Shu's name right now, as Inori returned to her worried self.

"Where's Shu?" She asked Ayase with big eyes, obviously not feeling content at all, now that she had lost sight of him. Especially when he had been in such a dangerous condition the last time she HAD seen him.

Ayase frowned and tried to explain: "Some weirdos appeared out of nowhere and took him with them. They seemed to be concerned enough for Shu to be allies, but I don't know. I don't easily trust strangers."

Inori for her part seemed to slightly relax once she heard that information. "They are alright, I know them." She told Ayase with a sigh of relief. "Hare is with them, right?"

"Yeah. Hopefully she will fix Shu up before he passes out from blood loss."

Next to them, they could see Juan carrying Yahiro on his shoulder while flying on his hover board.

"If you sneeze on me, I will kill you." Yahiro grumbled with gritted teeth.

"Quit whining or I will drop you…" Juan merely replied with an annoyed expression, followed by a sneeze.

"What did I just tell you? Watch it!"

"Shaddap!"

Ayase eyed them awkwardly. "I am just glad the other guy took Shu…" Inori couldn't help but nod.

And with that, the four of them sped up to catch up with the rest of them.

-GC-

"Damnit! We lost them…" One of the armored soldiers back at Tennouzu High cursed. The envoy of Da'ath just shrugged it off.

"It doesn't matter. We got what we wanted." He smirked and looked at his left hand that held the void genome he had taken from Shu. "Besides, we also learned some _intriguing_ facts today. Such as Inori Yuzuriha's ability to use Eve's powers despite not being Eve herself. I am sure Da'ath will be very interested to learn of this."

"But what will we tell the boss? She said she wanted us to make sure Ouma Shu wouldn't survive."

The blond youth sighed in an irritated way and tried to wave it off. "Tell her whatever you want. I never approved of killing him in the first place…so much potential would have gone to waste that way."

"But…" The soldier obviously tried to object, but got interrupted by Da'ath's envoy yet again.

"Enough, you start to bore me…go and do whatever it is you usually do. I have more _pressing_ matters to attend to…"

The soldier growled in anger at such a rude treatment, but decided to comply. His boss had clearly said that he was to do everything that kid wanted him to do…so he would. What did it matter as long as he would get paid in the end…?

He went over to a truck full of crates and ordered people to open them.

"Hurry it up, guys. You would all want the content of these syringes in your body when this all starts. Make sure everyone gets his share of the vaccine..."

Yuu no longer paid any attention to the people around him. Deciding it was time to travel to the void realm to guide Eve back into this world, he lifted his left hand and initiated the opening of yet another rift with a pleased smile on his lips. While he waited for the gate to open up again, he took a glance into the direction Shu and his friends had fled into.

"I wonder what your next move will be, Ouma Shu?" He said with a curious smile on his lips, only to close his eyes and shake his head in indifference. "Not that it will matter. The apocalypse will come…one way or the other…"

The rift eventually opened again and the blond boy simply walked into it with his hands buried in his pockets. No one seemed to pay him any mind, not while he was going towards it, nor when he had finally vanished together with it once he had successfully passed through it. Everyone was just busy preparing everything for what they thought would be the coming of the third Lost Christmas.

The countdown to the world's destruction had begun yet again…

But this was only a minor concern for the true king's closest friends, for if their beloved king would fall tonight, succumbing to his wound, they knew that they had not only lost today's battle, but the war as a whole.

Snow started to fall over Tokyo…

Hopefully its intention was not to herald death.


End file.
